Genesis
by HearingBasedOnSound
Summary: On orders from the J.L.A., Richard, Rachel, Garfield, Victor, and Kori form the Titans to stop the uprising crime rate in Jump City. However, perhaps the J.L.A. has a deeper, hidden plot behind it all. A retelling of the Teen Titans' story. BBRae.
1. Attack

**AN:** This is not meant to be an AU at all. Just a sort of… retelling. Yeah… that's it.

And no, the Titans have not formed yet, this chapter (and probably the next two) will be the precursor to that.

--

Alone, a white seagull sat atop a crumbled building. The building was marred with black streaks from a still burning fire, and numerous windows were shattered. This, along with every building on the next two blocks, was identical. The streets had long been evacuated, the city's people safely hidden from the threat.

A large, faceless beast was gliding through the city at an insanely fast pace. His legs were moving so fast, it was as if his feet never even touched the ground. He was covered in dark blue, and the only sign that might have a head was a skull looking structure in the middle of his chest. He didn't even have a real purpose; the only thing on the creature's mind was_destroy._ The creature sped through the city, turning corners at random, looking for anything that wasn't already in an anarchical blaze.

"Today, at 12:30, a special state of emergency has been declared." A booming voice from outside of city limits said thought a speakerphone. Thousands of people all huddled together, many in tears, as they saw this unknown force tear apart their home not 1000 yards away.

"Please, take count of your family, and report to the nearest officer you can find. As soon as you have checked in, please follow the signs to the underground safeguards." The speakerphone boomed again.

The people began to line up, and take refuge, wondering when the attack would stop.

"I'm sorry; all normal lines are down due to the state of emergency." Said the operator. The male didn't even bother to hang it up before walking out of the phone booth. He just sighed and looked back up at the city. He hadn't left, his guardian Nicholas Galtry, was supposed to pick him up to take him out of the city as it was being evacuated. However, it seemed to the male that Nicholas Galtry had forgotten about him.

"Great. Now what am I supposed to do?" said the male, looking around. The creature had been on the other side of town, and the buildings in front of the male looked rather untouched. Safe.

"I guess I should at least _try_ to make it to the shelter." The boy took one step before out of the corner of his eye, he caught something. He snapped his head, thinking it was the creature, and prepared himself to fight something roughly three times his size. When he looked though, he saw only another human. His age, maybe a year older, and wearing all black except for a blue bird on his chest. When the male blinked, the other had gone.

He would have been confused, if it hadn't been for two helicopters flying over his head that caught his attention. The both bore the U.N. insignia, made a terrible noise. Two more helicopters followed that, making four in total. The helicopters began communicating with each other via headset.

--

"The creature is on our grid!" screamed the first pilot.

"I can't get a lock on him, he's moving too fast!" Though the beast was huge, and when he stood still, clearly an easy target, its zig-zagging speed was making the better of the pilots.

"Fire anyway!" And with that, the third helicopter released some sort of laser cannon. It arced with gravity and found its way from the sky to the ground. The male followed the cannon's path, and saw that the creature had moved from the far end of the city, and was now only blocks away from him. The canons continued.

One managed to hit the creature, and knocked him back a great deal. This only seemed to anger him, however, as he stood back up merely just a second later. He faceless being looked around, and saw that a monorail had been bent and broken, and made for an easy ramp. The creature sped off towards it, and jumped the 15 feet to the hanging car. He then traversed his way up to the top of the cars still on the rail and before the pilots could move, the creature had jumped off of it and onto a helicopter, tearing at the fuel lines.

It began to spin out of control, and the creature let go, falling his way back to the ground. The damaged helicopter did a full two and a half spins before colliding with another, and both were in flames before they crashed into a building.

--

All the male could do was watch, awed at the creature's power, and pray that he didn't find him. Luckily, he wouldn't have to wait any longer; a black Lamborghini pulled up beside the male, and the driver opened the door.

"Get in." said the driver. Nicholas Galtry.

"Gee. And here I was thinking you'd never come for me." Said the male, a little sneering.

"If it wasn't for the J.L.A., maybe I wouldn't have." The driver looked at his passenger and thought of disgust. "I'm joking of course."

"Sure you are. Just one more week, and I'll be 18. Then I can live on my own and you won't have to worry about me so much. Nick." The male said it with an incredible disdain in his voice.

"I will miss it, Garfield." The driver's voice was dripping with sarcasm.

"Just drive. Let the U.N. or the J.L.A. handle whatever that thing is." He said, slouching in his chair. The driver sped away, retreating to the safety of whatever streets may be left in tact for him to get the shelter.

--

Back at the battle, the helicopters weren't doing so well. "Commander! We can't do anything! We can barely get a hit in, and when we do, we just seem to anger it!"

"How many of you are left?" a voice in a building far away, asked. 'The Commander' as he was called.

"Its just me! I'm flying too high right now to either shoot him or let the monster attack me!"

"Retreat pilot. That's an order. We'll figure something out. Buildings can be rebuilt, we cannot rebuild a soul." The voice said. The pilot's 'Yes, sir.' that would have followed never came though, only static. The Commander sighed and placed his head in his hands.

"Is Nightwing there yet?" The Commander asked to nobody in particular.

"Yes, Commander, I believe he is." Replied a woman. She was at a monitor, ticking away rapidly at the keys, and had swiveled in her chair to respond.

"Send him in." The Commander looked... disappointed.

"Are you sure, Commander, is that a wise idea?" The woman turned fully to him now.

"If anybody can beat this thing, Nightwing can." He sounded quite sure.

"Yes, sir." The woman turned back to her monitor, and resumed typing.

"Good luck, Richard." Said the Commander under his breath.

--

They were almost to the base, when the driver, Nicholas Galtry, spoke. "You know, thanks to you, I got quite a few dents in this thing. It is scratched horribly. It wouldn't have been in this condition if I hadn't had to find you."

The passenger just looked at him, a mixture of awe and disbelief and hatred in his eyes. "Well, it wouldn't have gotten scratched if you hadn't waited 30 minutes after the evacuation signal to remember to come get me."

"I only had three payments left on this, Garfield. Now, its ruined, what do you expect for me to do?

"If you are even_considering_ dipping into my parents' trust fund they left for me_ again _then I am sorry." Said the male, Garfield. Nicholas Galtry had an amused glare in his eye.

"Oh? And just what would you do? Until you turn 18, I'm you're legal guardian. You don't have any say in the money." Garfield's eyes met his.

"No. I only have to wait a week, and then I'm legally free of anything that binds me to you. However, I could always slice your throat; that doesn't have to wait until I'm 18." Garfield said this with all honesty.

"Like you would. The J.L.A. would lock you up and throw away the key before you could even say 'Mommy and Daddy'." Nicholas laughed at that.

"Keep thinking that,_Nick._" Garfield had a smirk on his face. And Nicholas didn't know why, but he really believed that smirk.

--

Once out of city limits they reached their destination fairly quickly. Not the underground shelters, as Garfield had previously thought, but it was the Justice League of America headquarters. They pulled into the garage, and the two walked towards the elevator. However, before they could even press the button for the doors to open, they seemed to open by themselves. The elevator already had a passenger, an older woman with black hair, and in a black suit. She did wear a golden tiara, however.

"Garfield Logan? Nice to meet you. My name is Diana Marston, she held out her hand and shook his as he reciprocated. "I was waiting for you. Welcome to the J.L.A. Come with me, I'll take you were you need to be."

Garfield walked into the elevator with the woman, and knew he could trust her.

"What about me?" asked Nicholas Galtry. "Am I to go in to?"

"I believe we only requested Mr. Logan. Thank you for bringing him Mr. Galtry; you services here are no longer needed." Diana just smiled and then hit a number on the side of the elevator, and the doors began to close.

"See ya later, _Nick_." Said Garfield. He could only smile at his former guardian's obvious outrage. He had never been in the actual stronghold of the J.L.A., only the waiting rooms and such. And even though he never said anything to Garfield, he could tell that he was excited to see what it looked like.

The elevator's doors closed, and started to move downward. "So this is where all of my parent's research is stored?" said Garfield after a minute of silence.

Without turning her head towards his, "Yes. Mark and Marie's work with the human genome is helping to greatly to understand where superheroes get their powers from." Garfield just nodded.

"Do you know what a help they have been to us? You wouldn't believe how brilliant they are. "According to their research, we may one day be able to genetically alter a human being at birth to give that child what ever power the parent may wish."

"Isn't that a bad thing?" asked Garfield. "I mean, wouldn't the bad guys be able to do that as well?" Diana just looked at him.

"Well, yes, of course. That is why we aren't just going to _tell_ people about it. We're going to do it solely for our own purposes. For_our_ children. To make sure that if this does come to fruition, that the children are being raised by the right parents." Diana looked enthralled.

"Oh… well. I suppose that's safe…" said Garfield, still a little in shock of what exactly his parents' research was being used for. He never could understand why the J.L.A. had wanted the rights to it, but it did make a little more sense now. "It is important to protect the human race."

Diana just nodded.

--

"Nightwing. Did you understand that? Eliminate the target at all costs." The Commander said. His voice carried though a small receiver and into the ear of the one called 'Nightwing'.

"Its not like the city isn't already destroyed. How many 'costs' could there be left?" Said Nightwing, more to himself than The Commander.

"Nightwing, just do it." Said The Commander, sighing.

"What ever you say, Bruce." The transmission went back to static.

--

"Here, you're supposed to read this." Diana said to Garfield, handing him a small handbook.

"What is this for?" asked Garfield.

"Just read it. Its just guidelines and things. If you're going to be part of the J.L.A., you better follow the rules."

"Yes, I know, I know." Garfield looked bored. This was the longest elevator ride of his life. He wasn't sure how long they had been going down, but it was going on 3 minutes.

It finally ended, and the doors opened up to a very white, and very… sterile… looking place. There weren't any posters or pictures anywhere, just fluorescent lights and neon white paint, if there could be such a thing.

"Come on, down here." Diana said, tilting her head forwards and to her right. They reached a hallway, and took it, and then another hallway, and a door, and another hallway.

"Man, how in the world do you guys remember where you're going?" said Garfield, jokingly.

"We just do. It is a little complicated, but living down here straightens it all out."

"Oh, alright." Garfield took the answer. It was another 10 minutes before they stopped. A blond haired woman Diana's age was on the other side of a sliding door they had just opened.

"Diana? What is taking you so long? Is this him?" the blond woman asked questions quite quick in Garfield's opinion.

"Yes, he is the Third." Diana said.

"Third? Do you know anyone else that's not only green, but devilishly good looking? That ranks right up with first, baby." Garfield was back to his regular self again; the ride with Nicholas left him in a rare mood. "Garfield Logan, at your service."

"Yes… whatever. Now, come on. We're short on hands and on time." She turned on one heel and walked steadily off.

"Hey! Wait, aren't you going to at least tell me _you're_ name?" asked Garfield, trying to keep up with her.

"My name is Shayera Hol." Said the woman, and continued walking hastily.

"She's a real talker." Garfield mumbled to himself. He decided that he should read (a feat he rarely did) whatever that handbook that Diana had given him said before he did anything that would get him in trouble.

With his face buried in all of the rules and regulations, he barely paid attention to Diana and Shayera's conversation.

"So, the Commander just let Nightwing take the creature on by himself?" Diana looked a little shocked.

"Yes. Obviously Bruce thinks Richard can take it. Who knows, maybe the little punk will succeed." Shayera said flippantly.

"But, last time, Green Lantern had to help him out. Does Bruce really think that Richard improved that much in just a month? That's hard to believe." Diana was still in shock that a 19 year old kid was trying to take down something that even the armies laser cannons couldn't.

"Well, you know Bruce and the rigid training he used to goes through to be Batman. I wouldn't doubt it for a second if he had the kid doing the same thing." Shayera said.

"True… I mean, after all, Richard _was_ the First to be chosen."

"Yes, let's just leave it at that, and wait until we can get back into the Control Room and actually see what's happening."

--

"Bruce, are you okay?" asked Diana as the three of them walked in the Control Room. The Commander had been gripping his chair, his knuckles turning white.

"Its Nightwing. He's losing ground." Said one of the people working with a computer screen.

"He needs help." Said Diana. "We've got to get him some, he can't just die there. Who is all here?"

"Its just us three, Diana." Said Shayera. "Everybody else is on other respective missions."

"I will go." Said Diana, stepping forward.

"No. Wait. Why not let our new recruit?" Bruce said, turning towards Garfield. "See what he's got."

"You want _him _to go help?" Shayera was a little taken back. "He's not even part of the J.L.A. yet!"

"So? He does have fighting experience. As I recall, you _were_ part of the late Doom Patrol, correct?"

"Yeah! You better believe it! If you want me to go kick that dude's butt, its no sweat." Garfield was getting excited, he hadn't had a good fight in a while. The only reason he didn't try to fight the creature before was because he didn't want to mess with military affairs; if they thought they could handle it, why not let them go for it?

"Hmm… Alright then. Garfield, go to your right, those tubes over there are high powered elevators. They will take you to the surface in approximately 15 seconds. Find Nightwing, assist him, and the two of you promptly return back to here, understand?"

"Yes sir!" Garfield did a mock salute, more out of slight comedic effect to loosen the tension than to actually salute.

"Very well. Good luck, Garfield." Bruce turned and looked back at the monitors. Garfield started walking towards the elevator and even had a foot in when he turned back around.

"Oh… and you can call me Beast Boy." He gave every body a thumbs up, and with that, he was in the tube, being taken back to the surface to help a comrade he hadn't even met yet.

--

**AN:** Hm… Its been quite a while since I have written anything. Too long perhaps. Oh well. I hope you enjoy this. Not much to be said about it right now, except that I am quite well aware that it is slightly fast paced.

Not too many Teen Titan characters in here right now either… That will change, trust me. I just have to establish a few things, then we can get everything rolling.

Oh, and just a little for you information (if you didn't know):

Nightwing is Robin is Richard "Dick" Grayson

Garfield Logan is Beast Boy

Bruce is The Commander is Batman

Diana is Wonder Woman

Shayera is Hawkgirl

And yes, don't worry. Yes the other Titans will be in the story. It revolves around Raven and Beast Boy, of course they will be in there. They just didn't fit in here anyhere…


	2. Ceilings

**AN: **Hm.. I enjoyed the first chapter so much that I decided to go ahead and write the other.

**Qwertymann**: Haha, yes, I didn't go over what I had written before I loaded it on here. I read it after it had already been posted and constantly slapped myself. I'm usually very anal about grammar, but like I said, I didn't proof read it. I will try better this time!

**Canis Black**: You hit the nail right on the head Oo. Good guess, haha. And don't worry, I have thought about the character placements fairly intensely. I hope, at least. And, of course, I won't be going line by line, I will try my best to make it as close to DC canon as possible. Although, of course some things will change, but I think it will make the story rather interesting.

--

**Ceilings**

--

The Commander, Bruce, just looked at the monitors in front of him, hoping that it wasn't a mistake to recruit the adolescent that had just left his presence. He turned around and looked at Diana and received a nod of approval.

"He'll be fine, Bruce. He was part of The Doom Patrol, remember? Plus… he does have very… interesting… abilities. We chose him for a reason." Diana said.

Bruce turned his eyes back to the monitors. "Let's hope so."

--

Garfield felt like an anvil had been dropped on him. The unexpected high speed and pressure of the lift he was currently on made his knees give out and buckle beneath him. His right hand flew to a small golden railing to the side while his left was on the floor, trying to regain his balance.

Soon, his ride was over, and the metallic doors slid open with ease. He was back above ground, but still slightly outside of the city limits. He stepped out and turned around to see that the elevator he had just been on had come out of the ground and was now in the middle of what looked to be an abandoned bus stop. Its green trim curled and lipped above and around the elevator. The bench that should have been under this lip was slid a foot in front of the structure, and on tracks. This 'bus station' was specifically meant to get the J.L.A. back above ground without being noticed.

His eyes traced the short road back to the city; he would have a ways to go before he could both find the creature attacking the city and assist the person whom had been referred to as "Nightwing."

"Well, I had better start moving. Wouldn't want to disappoint anyone, now would I?" Garfield asked himself aloud. He closed his eyes, and felt his body start to shift. He heard his bones break, and slide against each other, changing in density and mass to better accumulate a new form. They slid atop each other as would a piece of paper going over another and meshed, forming a new solid structure. His muscles quickly deteriorated and shrank, withering away until only the very inner linings that were still attached to the too changing tendon clung to bone.

It was over in a matter of seconds, really, but to Garfield it always felt like hours. The process and breaking and mending his structure down was never a pleasant one, and no matter how hard he tried to put it out of his mind, the pain was always there.

Now in the form of a Peregrine Falcon, one of the fastest birds in the world, he took of in the air. He rode the thermals and used the heat radiating from the ground to pull him faster towards the city. It would only be a matter of minutes before he reached the creature.

And reach him he did. Garfield had only been flying for a minute and a half when he heard the aggravated grunt coming from a male coming from his right. He sharply turned and flew to the source of the sound. When he arrived, he saw a tall, black haired male with a Zorro style mask covering his eyes. He was clothed in black head to toe save for a blue bird that stretched across his chest.

Whoever this was wasn't holding out very well. He had a large gash across his cheek, and the sleeve on his left arm had been ripped up an inch or two past the elbow.

Garfield sloped to the ground and a foot before he hit pavement reverted back to his human self, tucking and rolling to avoid the shock. He stood beside the tattered boy on his right and looked to him, meeting him eye to eye. Garfield just winked and gave a thumbs up.

"The calvary is here!" Garfield joking said.

"I don't know who you are, but if you're on my side, I don't care." The boy's voice had a coldness to it, and a slight arrogance.

"Come on, dude. We're on the same team. Let's just kick this guy's butt, alright?" Nightwing didn't look at him, and only nodded. The two got into a fighting stance, facing the beast.

If the creature could have been confused, it would have been. The bird changing to human startled him a bit, and wasn't ready for it. Now that he regained his senses, however, he charged.

The creature jumped off of the street and to his right. He rebounded off of a building there, and leaped at Garfield. Garfield, underestimating the creature's speed now that he was first hand, failed to react quick enough and received a crushing blow to his chest, sending him flying back and hitting the pavement before bouncing once and coming to a rolling stop.

"Ouch. That guy sure does pack a punch." Garfield said, getting up and rubbing his forehead.

When he looked pack up the creature, he had attack Nightwing as well. This time tough, he didn't just simply let the inertia and momentum carry Nightwing away. The creature held Nightwing's throat in his left hand and was lifting him good half foot off of the ground. With his right hand, he had Nightwing's right wrist, and was trying to pull it out of its socket. Or entirely off the body, whichever he could achieve.

Garfield ran towards them, and flung himself at the creature. The creature only turned a half step and letting go of Nightwing's arm, grasped onto Garfield's. He held both of the would be heroes high. Nightwing had been fighting him for quite a while, and he wanted to toy with him. However, he perceived Garfield as a new-comer, a non-threat, and wanted to squash him out of his mosquito existence before his bite became more than it was worth.

He squeezed Garfield's wrist, and Garfield winced as he heard a bone snap. He winced harder when he heard another. He had his fill of broken bones, every one in his body many times a day. But he had never had anybody _else_ do it for him; he was always the one breaking his own.

The creature was satisfied with Garfield, and tossed him to the side and into a bent street lamp. He turned his attention back to Nightwing and started to punch and back-hand him in the face. Nightwing's time was coming, and he could feel his extremities going numb. The creature then backhanded Nightwing with such force that even he himself couldn't keep his grip on Nightwing's neck, and Nightwing spun out and slid into onto and curb. He had a fair stream of blood coming from the corner of his lip, and purple bruises were already starting to show on his cheeks.

--

"Richard!" Bruce was grabbing the back of chair as if he it were the creature itself and he was enacting his own revenge upon it.

"I can't stand idly by and just watch him die!" Bruce headed towards one of the lifts, and was going to step into it when somebody monitoring a screen in the room interrupted him.

"Commander, wait! It's the Third, Garfield Logan. He has gotten up again and is in combat with the beast." The person said.

Bruce looked back towards the screen, and was a hit with the slightest bit of hope. The boy had now taken the shape of a Bengal tiger, and had its huge fangs sank into the creature's right arm.

--

When Garfield awoke, he was in a bed, very similar to one that would be resident in a hospital. Everything was white, from his bed to his mattress to his bed sheets to the ceiling; it was all pure white.

He traced the bumps and texture on the ceiling, trying to make heads or tails of any sort of shape he could from with his rudimentary connect-the-dots. He tried to remember how he had gotten here. He thought that if perhaps he drew the creature, he could remember what happened, but it was to no avail.

The last thing he could think of was seeing the boy, Nightwing, all bloodied up. He then changed into a tiger, and charged the beast. His mind was a blank from there.

--

"What do we think of the events?" A faceless voice spoke.

On a monitor, designated 'No. 2', in a completely separate room from the Control Room, there were three black rectangular squares that filled the screen. All three of the squares were black, and were numbered as 'No. 1', 'No. 3', and 'No. 4'.

"Are you asking if we think the plans are ready to reach phase two?" the rectangle numbered 'No. 4' lit up a dull green, indicating that it had been whoever was sitting in front of the monitor designated such was the speaker. The monitors were in their respective rooms, giving the speaker complete and total privacy.

"Yes. Do you, Number Two, think we are prepared enough?" the No. 4 monitor went back to black and the No. 1 monitor lit up, this time a dull red.

The person sitting at the No. 2 monitor spoke, "I do not think so. We need more than the three children we have. The First and Third barely took out the creature from today."

The rectangle marked No. 3 lit up, a dull yellow, "What about the Second? She hasn't even arrived yet, she is still on her way from another country. She has shown phenomenal power and potential, have you taken into consideration her?"

The person at No. 2 spoke again, "Yes, of course I have. This attack wasn't anything compared to what will come, and you know it. These three children cannot handle it."

After a moment of silence, the No. 1 rectangle lit up its dull red. "Alright then. Get two more, five should be enough, don't you think Number Two?"

Another moment of silence. "Yes, five Teen Titans should be fine."

--

"In regards to yesterday's state of emergency--." A news channel reporter was cut of by the changing of a channel.

"New York officials say that the matter was taken care--." Another reporter on another station was taken care of in the same manner.

"Is there nothing on?" asked Diana aloud, and more to herself than anyone around. She and Shayera were under a small canopy, giving instructions to a clean-up crew in the city.

"Just be glad that this is all you have to do all day, Diana." Shayera said. "At least the janitors and construction workers of the city can work another day."

"I suppose. That's a very optimistic way to put the current events."

"Well, the truth is that everybody is afraid. You know that, Diana. Citizens of the town are in fear when another creature like that will attack." Shayera said.

--

"Are we in agreement then?" asked the speaker at No. 2.

"We will recruit two other gifted teens to fight the threats. Five should be plenty enough to take down the glooming evil ahead of us." No. 4 said as his dull green rectangle lit up.

"Whatever it takes to complete The Leap. If you think we need 15 teens, then so be it." The speaker at the No. 3 station said, just a touch of cynicism in the voice.

The dull red of No. 1 lit up and said, "Yes, do not worry Number Three. All will go according to plan. We just must first eliminate any variable."

"I understand." No. 3 said.

"We cannot go back now. Number Two, make sure everything goes off without a hitch." No. 1 said.

"Yes, of course. Humanity depends on it."

--

Garfield's hand rested against the window sill, his thumb rubbing the connection between glass and plastic up and down. He had stepped out of his room, and it became apparent to him that he had been in some sort of med bay. The harsh fluorescent lights were enough to drive him to seek the natural sunlight thought the window across the hall.

A noise to his left made him jump slightly. A nurse wheeling a gurney was making her way past him. The occupant of the gurney being very bandaged up Nightwing. He had a bandage and a patch over his right eye, and his left arm was in a sling. He looked so serious.

Of course, who wouldn't be serious at a time like that? Garfield mused to himself.

Their eyes met briefly and there was a spark there, of what, Garfield didn't know; comradeship, perhaps. Or maybe victory.

Garfield got a distinct gut feeling that it was failure, however.

--

"I love air conditioning. I marvel at the science of things." Diana said. She and Shayera were on their way back from the city, riding in a military style hummer. Shayera was on the phone, however and didn't take notice of the woman's comment.

"Hey. Garfield Logan is conscious. He doesn't have many physical injuries; apparently his certain ability also covers healing broken bones. Technicality, of course, he couldn't shape-shift if he didn't have that ability. But he doesn't remember too much, his memory is confused." Shayera said, hanging up with whomever she was speaking with.

"Will he be okay?"

"They say its nothing to worry about." Shayera said.

"That's certainly a relief."

"Yes, it was probably due to that creature giving him a concussion or something."

"He should be fine then." Diana said.

--

Diana went to the hospital in which Garfield was being held at and picked him up. The two promptly returned to J.L.A. headquarters.

"Bruce? I didn't think we'd see you here." Diana said, a little shocked. She and Garfield were turning a hallway when a large, muscular startled them.

"Diana, there you are. Garfield, I would like to speak to you in my office." Bruce said. He then turned around and started walking. Garfield just shrugged and followed after, leaving Diana behind.

A thousand questions were racing through Garfield's mind. What is this about? Was it because he didn't do well enough? Was it because he had gotten injured and couldn't remember the attack? Was it that he didn't arrive in enough to assist Nightwing without him receiving serious harm? Whatever it was, it would be addressed.

Once there, Bruce offered Garfield a chair in which he immediately sat in.

"Garfield. You did better than I expected yesterday. I would like to--." However, Bruce was cut off.

"You mean I did good! I'm not in trouble! Whew! Oh man, I though for sure--." Garfield's raving was interrupted by Bruce holding up his hand; a very powerful gesture signaling silence. Garfield gulped.

"No, you are not in trouble Garfield. In fact, you did so well that we will be relocating you. You will not stay in the J.L.A. facility, as does most of the League. Instead, you and four other teenagers will be forming a separate branch in another city."

"What? I thought I was going to be part of the League? You know, with the Flash and with the Martian Manhunter." Garfield was confused.

"The League has its reasons, Garfield. You see, Jump City has been plagued with crime for some time now, and it has become a burden for the League to consistently help this town out of its time in need. Most of the crime rates of from petty criminals and robberies, and many other things that the League simply cannot be bothered with." Bruce said this with such… apathy. It made Garfield cringe.

Bruce continued, "However, it has come to the League's attention that a growing number of beings with abilities have cropped up in Jump City, hence the need for the formation of a second branch. And I want you to be a part of it."

"You want me to be a part of it? So I'm going to be like the Secret Service or something? Or the FBI?" Garfield rubbed his chin at this. "Hm… a special branch, huh? Well, I guess I _am_pretty amazing. Who is going to be apart of it? Anybody I might know?"

Bruce smiled, "Yes. The boy you worked with yesterday, Richard Grayson. He is better known as Nightwing. He will be the leader of the team, as he was the First chosen to be part of it."

"Does that mean that I'll be in second?" asked Garfield, wide-eyed.

"No. There was another chosen before you, a girl. Her name is Rachel Roth, she was the Second. You are the Third, and the Fourth and Fifth are being chosen as we speak." Said Bruce.

"Wait, I haven't seen any Rachel chick! How can she be Second?"

"Garfield, we aren't just choosing the people at random on the streets. Rachel Roth has shown incredible talent. The reason you have not yet met her is because she currently resides in England. She is being flown over here later this week, and will join the team."

"Oh… alright then…" Garfield seemed like he understood everything well enough.

"Do you have any questions?"

"No, I guess not." Garfield said. Truthfully, he was really excited at being able to work with the big name superheroes. When he received his notice in the mail a week ago that he was to report to J.L.A. headquarters, he couldn't contain himself. Now, he had to be teammates with four complete strangers.

"Good." Said Bruce. He then began typing something on his computer.

"Oh! There is one thing I forgot to ask. When do I leave?"

Bruce looked up at him from his monitor screen, "The Titan Tower just finished construction two and a half weeks ago. You will leave here in two days time and take up residence in the Tower."

"Of course." Garfield said in a '_Duh_' voice.

--

Sooner than later, the two boys were in a helicopter and flying across country. California was a long way away, and the two had nothing to talk about as they had only met the day before.

"Richard, was it? So, you're gonna be my leader, huh? What's it feel like?" asked Garfield. Nightwing was no longer in costume, but dressed in civilian clothes; blue jeans and white t-shirt did wonders.

"I don't know. As long as you don't step out of line, then I will have no fight with you." He sounded so serious, and his piercing blue eyes only added to accentuate the point.

_Great. This will be a blast._ Thought Garfield, looking out the window.

A few hours later, they were flying about Jump City. The sun's bloody arcs stretched over the ocean, and dazzled onto the windows and rooftops of buildings. It truly was a beautiful city.

Their helicopter touched down onto an enormous H painted onto an even more enormous T-shaped building. Garfield was reluctant to get out; all he really wanted to do was to stare at the sparkling ocean. Richard though, was out as soon as the vehicle had landed.

--

"How was Richard?" Shayera approached Bruce. He was currently looking through a glass window. At to what he was looking at though, she didn't know, the other side of the window had no light shown in it.

"Hmm?" Bruce seemed distracted.

"You went to see Richard today, didn't you? How was he doing?"

"Richard is a quick healer. He will have to use a sling for his arm, and will have to use a cane for a few days, I assume. But he will be fine, he always is." Bruce said.

--

As soon as the two walked into the tower and flipped on the lights, Richard seemed to know where his room was at. The J.L.A. had moved all of the boys' things into the tower the day before, that way their rooms would be ready when they got there.

Richard disappeared down the hallway to Garfield's left. Garfield assumed he had bad jetlag or something.

Garfield, on the other hand, couldn't stay cooped up for long, and decided to explore. He followed Richard down the hallway where he came upon two doors. Music could be heard coming from one of the rooms, and Garfield assumed that that was Richard's door. Across the hallway, and a few feet down, Garfield spotted another door. There was nothing of interest on the other side, though, just an empty room, as was the result with the next door he came across.

"Jeez. Three rooms down, and none happen to be mine yet. Perhaps on the other side? Mmm…yes. That'll do it." Garfield spoke to himself as he traversed the other end of the hall.

On the opposite end, there were again three rooms. Garfield looked in the first to no avail, another empty. However, when he looked in the second one, he found that everything in the room was either dark purple or black. The bed had black silk bed sheets, the window had heavy purple curtains, and there was a very heavy looking bookshelf filled from the left all the way to the right stuffed with thick books. The scent of candles half-way gone filled the room, and even though they weren't lit, Garfield could recognize the smell; lilac and morning rain.

"What kind of person is going to live here? This seems kind of creepy… Everything's too black. Not my kind of place at all." Garfield said, exiting the room.

He walked the few feet across the hallway to reach the only door left. He opened it to find green walls with animal posters every here and there. He had a bunk bed for reasons he honestly didn't know himself, he just found it amusing. Like some sort of complicated inside joke.

Whoever had moved all of the things over to the Tower had obviously only done a half-ass job of putting his things together, several of the boxes with his clothes in them had spilt from their stacks and now Garfield's carpet had shirts and pants strewn all about it. Garfield considered pick and stacking everything back up, but after a moment's hesitation, he decided that not only would it be too much time to restack all that the movers had undone, but it would just further the habit of having to keep tidy.

And that would interrupt some serious video game time. And who would want that to happen?

Garfield smiled with content and jumped up to the top bunk. He laid down on his back and looked up at the second unknown ceiling he had seen in the past three days, and promptly fell asleep.

--

_Garfield stood there, in the Bengal tiger form, his teeth latched on to the creature. Nightwing was unconscious and in seriously bad shape._

_The creature grabbed Garfield by the scruff of his neck and threw him a few feet away. Garfield's teeth took out a large chunk of meat from the creature, causing it to bleed profusely._

_All the creature could do was stare at its own appendage, watching the blood steadily trickle and fall to the concrete. While memorized, Garfield shook his arm as if throwing water droplets off, and heard the distinct cracking of his bones back into their rightful place, no longer broken._

_The creature snapped out of it though and turned its attention to where it had thrown Garfield. Garfield was already in the air though, back in human from he completed a front flip and landed a blow directly to the creature's chest with his boot._

_Garfield hooked his left hand around to the beast's back and held himself on the creature's chest while his right hand dealt out blows. The creature reached up and pulled Garfield from himself, and threw him at the nearest building. But before Garfield collided, and spun around and landed feet first on the side of the building, and promptly launched himself back and the creature, turning into an orangutan mid-air._

_The Orangutan latched itself onto the creature again, the creature's left arm shielding itself from Garfield's full weight. Garfield grabbed the arm, transformed into a massive gorilla, and snapped the creature's arm like a twig. He then followed up with a spinning back-hand to the creature's rib cage._

_The creature fell backwards, and was now spread eagle. He was loosing blood and had a broken arm and two bruised ribs. The creature could barely breathe. Garfield was about to let loose another string of barrages when a small whistling sound caught his attention, followed by the clang of metal inserting itself into concrete._

_Garfield followed the line of trajectory and saw a figure that struck fear into even Garfield. It was a masked man; cape billowing in the wind, and the light from dusk silhouetted two menacing ears, as if they were horns from the Devil himself._

"_That is enough, Beast Boy." Said the figure. All Garfield could do was watch as in a split-second's timing, the figure threw something at him. And before Garfield could realize what to do, he was unconscious._

--

"You've done a good job so far, Garfield." Said Bruce aloud and to himself. "Do not disappoint me."


	3. The Tin Man Cometh

**AN: **Well, I'm glad –somebody- likes this enough to review.

Hahaha.

Thank you Qwertymann.

Oh, and if any of you have ever watched that show "Ninja Warrior", it will help with visualizing the first part of this.

--

**The Tin Man Cometh**

--

"Garfield. You will run through the obstacle course as fast as you can. It consists of balance training, strength training, and speed training." Said Richard.

Garfield and Richard were now in a lower level of their new home. Garfield was awoken this morning by a slight tapping on his door, and when he answered it, he found Richard on the other side, and in full Nightwing garb. "Its time to go." Was all he had said to him before turning his back and walking away.

"Aw come on dude. I don't need any of this! If I need more balance, I'll change into a monkey or something. If I need strength, a dinosaur; and a cheetah for speed. I'm set man." Garfield said, smiling at Richard. He decided that what the end of that, and he was going to walk back to his room to get another hour or so of sleep.

"And what about if we happen to be in a room where the ceiling is too low for you to shift into a dinosaur? Or if you're in an alleyway, and there's no room to zigzag like a cheetah would?" Richard called out before Garfield left the room.

Garfield's shoulders slumped a little and his head tilted.

"I… guess… whatever dude." He sighed, turning back towards Richard. "Let's get it over with."

The course started off with six triangular shaped stepping stones, each roughly five foot high. There were staggered, three on one side and three on the other, and they were just far enough apart that you would have to jump from one to the other. The object of these was to climb atop the first, and bounce back from left to right, and progress through all six steps.

The course then hit upwards slope with a ladder made out of rope, which you would climb to reach a small platform 20 feet in the air. On the other side of the platform was a row of descending monkey bars, each bar just barely within a fingertip's reach. The monkey bars lead down back to the ground where you would have to traverse through a (very cliché, in Garfield's opinion) hallway in which low level laser beams shot though the walls whenever motion was detected.

After the hallway another platform high off the ground awaited, this one reachable by a plastic and metal rock-climbing wall. After climbing up this, the only way to get back down was via zip line; Garfield's favorite part of the whole thing, mind you.

The only bad thing about the zip line though, was that it went 10 feet past the next platform (significantly lower than its former, but still off the ground nonetheless), and if you didn't let go of the handle bar of the line at just the right second, you would either undershoot and get a mouthful of metal as you ran into the platform face first, or you would simply run into the wall in which the end of the zip line was attached.

When Garfield saw what this platform was connected to, his mind was reeling; all he could think of was Tony Hawk. The way to get back off of the platform was through the connecting curvature dropping nearly straight down, which (of course), curved back up to another, yet slightly higher platform. It was a half pipe.

Once on the other side of the half pipe, you had to go across a rope net hung horizontally above your head; much like another set of monkey bars, except made of thread instead of metal. After dropping from this, the only thing left to do was to climb metal pole similar to that firefighters use to and hit a small red button on the wall 20 feet above the ground. This would stop the clock (if being timed) and calculate the results.

Richard had bested Garfield's time through the course easily.

"Garfield, that was a nice try, but you kept slipping up and taking too long. You'll need to improve if you want to be part of the team."

"Hey, I _am_ part of the team, remember? At least, the J.L.A. thought I was good enough." Garfield smirked.

"The J.L.A. and I have slight disagreements on training exercises. And besides, it isn't the J.L.A. running this place, its me." Richard poked himself in the chest with his thumb.

"Yeah? And who was it exactly that decided to _you_ make you the boss?"

"The…. J.L.A…." Richard couldn't meet Garfield's eyes, for he knew that his face would be plastered with a smile.

"That's what I thought! Now come on, let's go get something to eat, I'm starving!" Garfield said, slapping Richard on the back.

Richard just winced. "I suppose we could take a break. After all, it is only our first day."

"Exactly. See? I knew I'd get through to ya!" Garfield smiled and walked out of the room, trying to find the kitchen.

--

"So, where'd you go to school at?" asked Garfield, leaning back in a chair with his feet propped up on the back of another. He didn't want to offend Richard by putting them on the table.

"I didn't go to high school, I had a private tutor. But he was a professor from Princeton, so I have a fairly good education." The side of Richard mouth curved into a smile. He had hated those days, and he had always had a side of him that hated Bruce for not letting him go to a real school where he could get actual social interaction. Of course, Batman wasn't the most social person either.

"Oh wow dude. That must have sucked. You didn't have like a prom or anything?" Garfield just looked at Richard with wide eyes.

"No, not really. And I'm fine with it; it gave me more time to train and study." Garfield rolled his eyes at that.

"Sounds like… er…fun." Richard shrugged.

"What about you? Was it hard to fit in with your… condition?" Richard side-stepped the issue.

"My… condition? Dude, I'm green, its not like its hard to miss or ignore." Garfield gave a small chuckle. "But no, I never went to public school, either."

The conversation died after that; the two retreated to the couch to watch whatever was on the first channel when they turned on the T. V.

_There had better be some more interesting roommates soon, or I'll go crazy._ Thought Garfield, watching some lady shout to an audience about how she was '900.9999 sure' that this man (the seventh to be tested, by the way) was her baby's father.

He wasn't.

--

"In more recent news, it seems that a new pair of heroes has arrived in Jump City." Said a female reporter wearing a pale yellow business suit.

"After the attack on the city the other day, two teenage males arrived on the scene. This is all being collected from the camera footage from security tapes around local businesses, and no real witnesses have shown up. However, we can see that on one of the tapes, the two males incapacitated the creature causing havoc across town. Will this be the new trend?

"The Justice League of America seems to hope so. Official word the League put out late yesterday is that they are starting a small but powerful branch of younger heroes to get the job done that they; and I quote, 'Just cannot take into consideration at this particular moment in time.'

"Does this mean that there will be more of these young heroes coming about? And what of the villain population? Is this new rise in heroes going to decrease the robbing of banks and the violation of rights through instilling a new kind of fear into criminals? Or will the criminals simply take this as a challenge, and crime rates increase? Well, we'll just have to see. Until further news, this is--."

Richard turned the T. V. off. Something about the way the reporter had implied that his being there would only serve to _dare_ villains to commit crimes just didn't sit right with him.

--

Garfield had decided to get out of the Tower, and walk around the city. The awkward silence between him and Richard was getting annoying. How Richard could stand it? He didn't know, and didn't want to. He took a turn on 7th street, and rounded the corner to find the battle scene from the other day.

He had no idea where anything was at as he was still a brand new citizen of Jump City. It had been fate that pulled him back to the scene of the crime. Most of the destruction was minimal and easily fixed. There were tons of construction workers already smoothing concrete out all over the road, and there were others installing new glass windows to some of the buildings.

"Wow. They sure do work fast." Said Garfield, under his breath.

"Oh my God! Are you…! Him!" Garfield turned around to see fours girls, probably about the age of 13, in a half circle just starting wide-eyed at him.

"Uh… who's him?"

"You are him! Look you've even got the green skin like they said on the news! Oh wow!" The girls were all over him, poking and prodding. One took his cheeks and stretched them.

"Does it hurt mister? You know, when you change into animals?" said one of the red faced girls.

"Of course not! I mean, look at me! I'm pretty much amazing!" Garfield said, gaining a little bit of his sense and confidence back after the shock of random strangers approaching him. He stuck a pose; the girls just swooned.

"Can I get your phone number? Can I be your girlfriend?!" He didn't even know which of the girls it was that had said it, but he just looked at all four of them and shook his head.

"I think I'm a little too old for you guys," he said, laughing out loud. Five years older, in fact.

The girls' faces just looked downtrodden, like all their dreams had been dashed away.

"But… I suppose I _could_ sign an autograph or two?" said Garfield egotistically.

"Oh my God! That would be so cool!" The girls began to jump up and down in their immature little way of showing excitement.

It was the first time Garfield had signed an autograph. He didn't sign his _real _name, of course. He put down Beast Boy on all the pieces of paper (it was the only thing the girls had). It felt oddly good.

_Maybe being a celebrity won't be so bad._ He thought to himself.

--

Garfield returned to the tower some time later. He scoped out the city, found the best pizza place, made friends with everybody there, and then decided to go home.

_Home_. Garfield chuckled to himself. He had only been living at the Tower for two days, and he already considered it home. Well, compared to the relentless dogging of Mento (leader of The Doom Patrol), and the ignorance of Nicholas Galtry (his former guardian), anywhere would be a better home.

He was about to take off when his cell phone rang. Some catchy jingle he had written himself in the phone's melody application once when he was bored.

Garfield didn't have to look at who it was to know that it was Richard.

"Garfield? This is Richard. Listen, we've got trouble. It appears that there was a robbery downtown. Since you're already in the city, you head there first, and I'll meet up with you as soon as I can. Do you understand?"

"Yeah, yeah, dude. Time to do what we're getting paid for…" Garfield said.

"Uh… we aren't getting paid, Garfield. We just get the free rent."

"Oh… Well, I guess I'll go anyway." Garfield gave a nervous laugh.

"Good. Nightwing, out." Garfield sighed, and turned around, heading for the where the robbery had occurred.

Garfield arrived on the scene in only a minute or so; flying definitely had it advantages. He arrived and pushed his way through a crowd of people that formed a semi circle around a bank. The police had several units and their cars barricading the roadways and entrances to and from and around the bank. Police were hiding behind the front ends of their cars, arms holding guns across the top of the hood. Twenty some odd handguns pointed in the same direction.

When Garfield saw what it was that the police were so terrified of, his jaw dropped. How was he going to defeat that?! There stood a nine foot being, its glowing red eyes looked menacing, and its massive frame looked as if it could crush a person with just a breath.

"My name is Cinderblock!" the creature shouted. "Bring me a challenge!" The being was surprisingly articulate. Honestly, Garfield had just expected some grunting and groaning.

Garfield stepped forward out of the crowd, and a police officer let him through, recognizing him from the fight with the previous villain.

"Hey, Charlie… look. Its one of those kids. The green one." The officer whispered to his fellow officer.

"Hey yeah! Maybe he'll be able to do something about this guy, do ya think?" said his friend.

"I hope so." Garfield now was within a ten foot proximity of Cinderblock, and got into a fighting stance.

"This? This is your city's hope? This green… elf?" Cinderblock laughed. Garfield's small smirk quickly turned into a frown.

"Hey… I am not an elf!" Screamed Garfield. He jumped at Cinderblock and front flipped, landing his heel on Cinderblock's head. He quickly recoiled and jumped back off, doing a back flip, this time.

Cinderblock just stumbled back a little bit. "It that all you have? That did not even hurt! I'm made of stone and forged from the Earth itself. You'll have to do a lot better than that, elf."

"I. Am. Not. An elf!" Garfield changed into a chimpanzee and jumped at Cinderblock. Garfield grabbed Cinderblock's shoulders and flipped over him, changing into a gorilla mid-air and using his newfound momentum to flip Cinderblock over his back in a sort of inversed leap frog.

It had little effect, though. As Cinderblock's weight was so great, Garfield was only able throw him a few feet, if that.

"Hmm. It seems I underestimated you. I'll kill you!" Cinderblock got up and charged at Garfield.

Garfield swiftly changed into a mouse, and ran under Cinderblock's legs, changing back to his human self behind his back. Before Cinderblock could turn around, Garfield jumped and tried to land a spinning kick to Cinderblock's head. Cinderblock's head didn't even flinch this time, and just grabbed Garfield's ankle and swung him out at arms' length horizontally. Cinderblock let go of Garfield's ankle, and Garfield went flying into the side of a police car.

"Dude… did anybody get the name of that bus?" Garfield just shook his head and got back up. He charged towards Cinderblock, and changed into a bull before head butting Cinderblock's chest.

Cinderblock stumbled back and tripped over his own feet, causing him to fall down. He got back up quickly though. Well, as quickly as a 700 pound man composed of solid stone _could_get up. He walked over to Garfield, now back in human form, and before Garfield could react, Cinderblock did an upwards backhand to Garfield's jaw, which lifted Garfield off of the ground and moved his body several feet back. Garfield landed on his back.

"I knew you wouldn't be much of a challenge." Cinderblock said. He walked over to Garfield's limp body and looked at that blood trickling down from his lip. Cinderblock rose his foot and prepared to step on Garfield's chest and crush his ribcage.

As soon as Cinderblock had barely rested his foot on Garfield's chest a blue and white beam hit Cinderblock square in the chest, causing him to stumble backwards.

"Boo-yah!" came a voice from what seemed to Garfield like miles away.

"Yo! Hasn't anyone ever told you not to pick on little guys?!" The person who had fired the beam came into Garfield's sight. The shooter had huge boots on, and grey sweatpants. He wore a rather baggy hoodie with the hood pulled up covering most of his body.

The only thing that Garfield saw before he slipped into unconsciousness was a small, bright red light under his hood.

--

Garfield awoke in a white room similar to the one at the J.L.A. headquarters. He looked around and a resounding disappointed hit him.

"Dude… what happened now?"

"You were knocked unconscious, Garfield." Garfield hadn't even known there was anyone else in there, however the voice said otherwise. Garfield turned to see Richard in his Nightwing uniform, and he didn't have to the most pleasant of looks.

"What? Where's that big stone dude?" Garfield asked.

"His name is Cinderblock. And he is now currently residing in a maximum security prison." Richard's voice was not angry; however it was not happy by any means.

"Well… what happened? Did you arrive? Who was that dude with the glowing eye?" Garfield's mind was racing as the memories came flooding back to him.

"I arrived just a couple of minutes after you passed out. The 'dude with the glowing eye' saved you, and helped tremendously in the fight against Cinderblock." Richard said.

"Whoa, really? What's his name? Where's he at?" Garfield looked around the room, trying to find his rescuer.

"He's unpacking right now, I believe." Garfield's jaw dropped.

"You mean he's going to be a Titan too!?"

"Yes. Apparently, he was on his way to the Tower when he received the signal that trouble was brewing downtown. We're just lucky that he was already wired and hook up into the Tower's mainframe." Richard said.

"Yeah, definitely!" Garfield nodded. "Wait… wired and hooked up? What's --." Garfield was cut off by the raising of Richard's hand, indicating silence.

"You'll see. Come on." Richard turned around to walk out of the room. Before he did though, he said something that made Garfield's stomach drop. "Oh, and you will have to double your training. You have to get stronger, Garfield. Not for just your sake, but for everybody's'." He left.

Garfield wandered out of the room, which he was assuming the Tower's med-bay, and into the hallway. He found his way to the living room, dragging the fingertips of his right hand along the wall as he went.

He quickly tapped the button for the two sliding doors to open and stepped through as they did. He sense of smell was immediately attacked.

"Dude! What is that!?" Garfield questioned, holding his nose so as not to let the fumes enter.

"Its lobster stuffed with steak! You want some?" the person who had answered Garfield's question was in the kitchen, wearing a rather goofy looking chef's had. Garfield just looked at him; the face smiling back was halfway covered in a blue and white metal and he had hands and forearms to match. His legs also seemed to be made of this, but Garfield couldn't quite tell.

"Uh…no dude. I'm a vegan." Said Garfield, still looking up and down at the metal man in front of him.

"Oh. Well that just means there's more for me!" he said, turning slightly to his left and then starting to stuff his face with his food. Garfield just cocked his head slightly. _Who is this?_

"Umm… who are you?" said Garfield.

"Oh yeah! I forgot; even though I've looked up all of _your_ background information, you still don't know me! I keep forgetting that when I meet people…" The man looked into distance and put his hand to his chin, as if he was in deep thought.

"Uh, hello?!" Garfield waved his hand in front of his face.

"Huh? Oh. Name's Cyborg. Well, that's my codename anyway. My real name is Victor Stone. Vic, if you want." He held out his hand.

"Vic, huh? Well, it is great to meet you!" Garfield took his hand and shook it thoroughly. "Can't say its too great to have another meet eater though."

"Oh, I'm sure we'll be just fine. What could go wrong? Its not that hard, as long as we just simply respect each other's choice of what to eat, right?"

Garfield laughed. "I suppose." Oh, how wrong they would be, how wrong indeed.

"Anyway, want to play to GameStation? I've got the newest Mega Monkey game!" Victor said.

"Yeah, dude! What are we waiting for!?"

It was odd, the two had only known each other for merely five minutes. Yet, they quickly bonded. Perhaps it was because of both of their love for video games (which they didn't stop playing until 4 hours later), perhaps it was because other than Richard (who when he didn't participate in their 4 hour game streak 'playing winner', was in his room), they were the only ones in their T-shaped mansion. Or maybe, the quick unspoken bond came from the fact that neither of them had really had a friend before, being as he was metal, and he was green. Whatever it was, neither cared. But both reveled in it.

--

**AN**: Hm.. I was originally going to leave the chapter with only Robin and Beast Boy still in the tower, none of the other Titans having arrived yet. However, it was becoming too much of a pain to keep writing conversation between the two as they rarely even converse in the cartoon. Even though I didn't want her in this until a little later, my first idea was, 'I have to add Raven. This is getting too dull.' But as I came upon the scene in question, I realized, 'Duh, Cyborg!' Anyway, thank you for reading this.

And yes, Raven will in fact be in the next chapter. This story needs to get rolling.


	4. Go!

**AN: **Hmm… I quite like this story. I know that sounds stupid, but I do. Its gotten over 500 hits, so that is certainly good, I think…

**RabulaTasa**Point taken… I am just not that amazing at summaries. Any ideas? Glad you're reading it though!

**Gun toten Girly**: Thank you! Wow, that is quite the review… wow. Haha. I hope you like this chapter, it's a beast.

Oh. And somehow, the entire series of Eureka Seven _found _its way onto my computer.

It took me all of two straight days to watch all of it, but its quite good.

_I am in no way original. If you find anything familiar, it is only because I have borrowed ideas from greater writers than I could ever hope to be._

-Phillip Pullman

I would like to dedicate this chapter to **Gun toten Girly**, for perhaps the best review I've ever gotten.

Also, thanks to **RabulaTasa** for pointing out my spelling/grammatical errors, and points that help the story progress more… naturally instead of sounding forced.

--

**Go!**

**Part the First**

Or

**Enter the Villain**

**--**

"The Fourth arrived mid-day two days ago. Victor Stone, or Cyborg, as he is called, has already set up his things in the Tower. Our surveillance shows that he and the Third, Garfield Logan, have established a strong friendship." The speaker at monitor No. 2 said.

"That is good. What about the Second? Wasn't she supposed to be there by now?" The part of the screen labeled No. 3 said, lighting up its normal dull yellow. "What is taking her so long?"

"Be patient. She is on her way. Her escort informed me earlier that they had been held up at the airport. They are coming by coach instead of first class, you know. They want to remain as inconspicuous as possible." The speaker at monitor No. 2 said.

"I did not, but thank you for that information, Number Two. The faster the Second gets to the Tower, the faster we can proceed with The Leap." The monitor labeled No. 1 lit up its dull red.

"What about the Fifth? Have we found another member yet? I thought we had agreed that the Titans need a fifth member if they were going to survive what is to come. Deathstroke is not one to take lightly." The monitor No. 4 lit up a dull green.

"Yes, we know. Finding a fifth is getting hard, though. Metahumans have started to group together themselves faster than they used to; they are forming their own groups. The Outsiders, the Force of July, and Young Justice to name a few. They believe it is better to join a team that is run by their peers instead of joining a team that is being watched over by the J.L.A." the speaker at monitor No. 2 added in.

"We will just have to wait, and keep searching. We have waited 200,000 years for The Leap to occur. We can wait a month." The No. 1 monitor glowed its dull red. There was silence for a solid minute.

"Yes, Number One. We will continue to wait, and to search." The green No. 4 said.

"That is for the best."

--

Garfield sat at the bar/counter in the main room. His fork slowly and easily glided into a mass of scrambled tofu eggs, separating the already weak bonds that tofu has to itself. He raised his fork up to eye level and took a good look at his fake food.

"Brrr…. Here comes the airplane!" Garfield whispered excitedly to himself, swishing and swaying the fork around a little in front of his face. He opened his mouth and gently placed the food on his tongue before chewing and giving a hum and pleasure.

That is, until he was snapped out of his little world by a booming voice.

"Garfield! What are you thinking, man!?" Victor was standing in the kitchen of the Tower; jaw dropped, and hands up in desperation.

"This stuff is disgusting!" Victor said, now pointing to what Garfield had on his plate, a small portion of the larger meal still on the stove. "And it smells terrible!"

"Dude! No it doesn't! Tofu is the best! It's much more humane than your crummy ole meat!" Garfield retorted.

"Humane? That doesn't matter! Just look at this…" Victor turned around and opened the refrigerator. He pulled out T-bone steak and held it high in the air as if in victory. "Ah ha! Isn't this the most beautiful site you have ever seen?"

If possible, Garfield looked a little greener.

"Sixteen ounces of lean, juicy steak! Nothing in the world could top this!" Victor said.

"No way!" said Garfield, now standing up out of his chair. "Tofu is the way to go! Its so much more healthier than that!"

"Who cares about health, its all about the taste!"

"You can make tofu taste however you want to, you just need a little flavoring!"

"Man, no matter _how_ much flavoring you add to that stuff, its still gonna smell terrible, and taste even worse!"

"Tofu!"

"Meat!"

"Tofu!"

"Me--."

"Will you two shut up with that tofu versus meat stuff! We've lived together for two days now, and that is all you two can talk about!" Richard shouted from across the room, interrupting the two.

"Yesterday, you two argued about which was better, a hamburger or a tofu-dog, for _three hours_! Its driving me crazy!"

"Dude… we're just playing…" Garfield said quietly.

"Yeah man, its all good." Victor said.

"Whatever. Just… stop arguing over something so… stupid!" Richard said.

"If it makes you feel any better, I'm making waffles!" Victor said, smiling at Richard.

"Waffles?" Richard looked at Victor with a raised eyebrow. "I'm not that hungry." The loud growling of his stomach, however, led Victor to not believe him.

"All right… maybe I could go for some waffles…" said Richard, he looked slightly defeated.

"Yes! They're gonna be the best waffles ever created!" Victor said, giving Richard a thumbs-up.

"And you're going to use non-dairy milk, right!" said Garfield, giving Victor a reciprocating thumbs-up.

"Uh… no. I want these to taste _good_."

"Hey! Tofu _does _taste good! You're just too stubborn to even try it!" Garfield said.

"I don't need to try it! I can smell that stuff from all the way over here!" Victor replied.

"Oh, brother…" said Richard to himself, giving a heavy sigh.

--

"So… what can you show me?" a cold, monotone voice asked to the female standing in front of him. The speaker was sitting in a chair, more likely to be a throne, in a dark room the size of a warehouse. The only traces of light were small LEDs giving off a vibrant orange glow, and a soft spotlight traced on the one the speaker was addressing.

"Yes sir." Said the woman. She pulled out a laptop from underneath her right arm and opened it. After punching in a few keys, she turned the laptop so that the screen would face the man sitting in his chair. As soon as the man focused his eyes on the screen, a video began playing.

"The Hive Academy For Extraordinary Young People is proud to introduce this year's top graduates," played the video. On the screen, three figures emerged standing next to each other.

The one farthest to the left was a young girl, in her late teens at the least. She had pink hair, very pale skin, and donned a dark purple and black dress dressed. To her left, standing in the middle, was a very short bald male in a green jumpsuit wearing a gray backpack. And on the far right, an enormous man towered over the two; he stood up straight with his hands behind his back.

"Gizmo, the young boy genius." The video now cut to a scene with the boy alone, standing in a yellow room with hexagons traced on all four walls. "His intellect can conquer any problem with an inventive solution."

The boy, Gizmo, pulled out a small controller similar to that of one for a GameStation, and his thumbs glided over the buttons, rapidly pressing them. Out of his backpack then, grew mechanical wings, and a small jet propulsion system lifted to boy into the air.

When he was aloft, out of the walls came three laser sets of two small laser weapons, and they began to fire at him. Gizmo managed to tilt left and right respectively, did a barrel roll for effect, then with a few presses of the buttons on his controller, shot down the laser weapons with his own laser weapon that had appeared from his mechanical wings.

The screen now switched to the pale, pink-haired girl. She was in a similar room, except for that with her was four robots, each easily twice her size in height and in weight.

"Jinx, the enchantress; a powerful sorceress whose hexes mean bad luck for any enemy." The girl twirled around, very akin to a ballerina. Out of her outstretched hands came light pink energy waves that radiated away from her body.

The pink waves caressed the robots, and passed through them gently. However, as soon as they had passed, the robots began to fall apart. An arm from one, the head rolling off of another, soon, all four of them just collapsed.

She smiled to herself, and gracefully pulled off a backwards cartwheel before the scene switched again.

This time, it was focused on the larger man. He was outside, unlike the others. He walked a little to his left, and encountered an enormous tree. He wrapped his hands around the trunk, his hands still a good foot and a half away from even touching.

"And Mammoth, the genetically enhanced giant whose unstoppable strength speaks for itself." At this, Mammoth strained his muscles, and pulled the huge tree out from the ground, exposing its large roots. He spun in a 180 and tossed the tree far in a rudimentary shot put. It slid across the ground and smashed into another tree, smaller that the former, and bent the latter in half.

The screen switched again to the three stars of the video.

"The members are well trained, and come combat equipped. These new H.I.V.E. agents are the perfect fighting force, and for the right price, they can be yours." The video ended there.

"Well, Mr. Wilson?" asked the woman holding the laptop.

"Impressive." Said the man sitting down. His voice wasn't as cold as it had been a few minutes ago. "However, robots and obstacle courses only prove so much. My plans demand operatives that can function in the _real_ world. If your students are going to serve me, they must first pass one final test… destroy the Teen Titans. And then we'll talk."

If there had been more light, the woman would have seen a smirk on the man's face.

"Yes, Mr. Wilson." Said the woman as she turned away and headed in the direction that she hoped the door was in.

"Oh, one more thing." The man said, stopping the woman. "Call me Slade."

--

"Oh man! I can't believe this! Its gotta be around here some place!" said Victor, lifting up the couch. "How could you lose the remote?"

"Hey man, I wasn't the one who had it." Said Garfield, before shifting into a bloodhound. He sniffed the ground, as if on a hunt.

"Garfield, you're you. You _had_ to have had it last." The boy shifted back to human form.

"Hey, just because I lost that video game--."

"And my toothpaste. And the football. And my waffle iron." Victor said. It was now nearly 4 in the afternoon, and Victor was still looking for a waffle iron to make waffles from the earlier morning's conversation.

"Hey, things disappear, that doesn't mean they're _my _fault." Garfield came back. "How am _I _supposed to know where they go!"

"Well, how am _I_ supposed to watch T.V. without a remote!?"

"By getting up, and changing the channel…" Richard said, butting in. He was just leaning on a side piece of furniture, and was currently enjoying watching his two teammates argue over something so trivial.

Victor and Garfield just looked at Richard.

"Don't even _joke _like that." Victor said; he and Garfield wore extremely serious looking faces.

Richard sighed, "It wasn't a joke."

"Good! Because it wasn't funny!" said Garfield. "You gonna help us look?"

Richard sighed again and shook his head before getting up and helping them locate the remote.

After another 15 minutes of searching, Richard gave up.

"Why don't we just go out for some pizza?"

--

The three now currently sat a Perotti's Pizza, one of the pizza joints in town that let the customers sit, instead of picking it up and going straight back home.

"What do you want, guys?" asked Richard.

"Don't care, just make sure its vegetarian." Said Garfield, nodding happily.

"What?! You can't tell me you're going to deny me the All Meat Experience!" said Victor.

"Dude… I've _been _most of those animals!" said Garfield.

"What about sardines and pineapple?" said Richard, looking at the menu.

Garfield and Victor just looked at him.

"What? Its good." Said Richard.

"What about double pepperoni?" said Victor.

"Dude, I'm not eating meat!"

"There's no meat in pepperoni!" Said Victor, trying to bluff.

The Titans weren't alone, however. From a building across the street, there was a pair of high powered binoculars trained on them, watching their every move.

"Gizmo to Jinx; begin phase one." The voice behind the binoculars said.

Jinx touched her ear, where her communicator had been at, and nodded. She turned around and waved her arm, sending and wave of pink energy towards a large parked bus. The bus shifted from park to neutral and began to move forward. The screams from the crowd of on-lookers alerted the Titans, however. The three members stood up to see the bus now racing towards an intersection.

"Titans, go!" shouted Richard. Victor and Garfield didn't have to worry about having a secret identity; as he was green, and his face was half metal. There wasn't much to hide. Richard, however, had to run into the bathroom of the pizza place first, and slide off the civilian clothes he had been wearing.

Victor and Garfield took the bus head on. Garfield shifted into what looked like a sasquatch/yeti, and together the two braced themselves for impact. The bus hit both of them, and the struggle began; both Titans trying to force the bus to a halt, while momentum tried to keep it going.

They slowed the bus to a stop just as Richard arrived on the streets.

"Um… don't busses usually have drivers?" asked Garfield, peering into the window and seeing the driver's seat vacant.

"Are you pit-sniffers really this stupid?" asked Gizmo from atop the bus. He pressed a button on his control, and an energy beam fired out of his belt, and hit Richard, sending him flying back.

As Garfield and Victor were distracted looking at Richard's body, Mammoth, who was behind the bus, lifted the bus off of the ground before bringing it crashing back down onto Garfield and Victor.

The three H.I.V.E. members gathered together.

"Wow. That was way too easy. You guys want to get some pizza?" asked Gizmo, thumb pointing at the pizza place.

"This isn't over!" shouted Richard, standing up. As if on cue, Victor and Garfield crawled from beneath the bus.

"Its kinda hard to crush someone whose skin is made of titanium alloy!" said Victor, flexing his left arm.

"Yeah, and when you can change into a rat, crawling under a bus is easy." Said Garfield.

"Now, who are you?!" shouted Richard.

"We're the H.I.V.E." said Gizmo.

"You're worst nightmare." followed Mammoth, getting beside Gizmo.

"And this is Attack Pattern Alpha." finished Jinx, standing in the middle of the two.

The three ran off in different directions and then angled back to fight the Titans. Mammoth grappled with Victor, Garfield with Jinx, and Richard with Gizmo.

Mammoth and Victor seemed to be evenly matched, neither one could push the other back. Garfield was trying to evade Jinx's pink attacks. He shifted into a hummingbird for greater agility, and dodged her attacks, waiting for an opening. Richard and Gizmo felt as if they were fighting a mirror image of their self; with every gadget one had, the other had a gadget to cancel it, or best it.

Gizmo got away from Richard long enough to get up to Victor. He smirked and place a small firework-like device on Victor's back.

"What do you call an idiot with a rocket strapped to his back?" asked Mammoth, grinning.

"Huh?" Victor lifted an eyebrow.

"Toast." At that, the small device let out propulsion, and sent Victor reeling and slamming into a nearby building.

Richard ran up to the two, and jumped at Mammoth, landing a solid kick to his jaw. Mammoth stumbled back a little before look Richard in the eye and smiling. Just then, Richard noticed the shadow looming over him.

He turned, and found Gizmo with four mechanical spider-like appendages.

_He looks like that Doctor Octopus guy from the cartoon Garfield was watching the other day _Thought Richard before being blasted back by and another energy beam from Gizmo's belt.

Garfield found an opening, and shifted into a Bengal Tiger. He pounced on Jinx and was mere inches away when he found two very strong hands on his waist holding him back.

Mammoth had caught Garfield mid-air. He lifted him above his head and tossed the changeling as far as he could. He landed near Richard, who had gotten back up now.

"Dude, is it just me, or are we getting our butts kicked?" asked Garfield.

"Its just you. Now come on! We just need to reorganize who we're attacking!" said Richard, charging back towards the three. The Titans got their second wind.

Garfield attacked Gizmo this time. He was in the form of a monkey, and jumped up onto Gizmo, latching himself onto the boy.

"Beast Boy! Get the backpack!" said Richard, who was starting to grapple with Mammoth. Garfield nodded.

"Ah! Get this scud-picker off of me!" shouted Gizmo, rapidly twisting back and forth. Garfield balled up a fist and began smashing into Gizmo's backpack, which started to send forth sparks. Gizmo's mechanical spider-legs started to malfunction, and Gizmo fell to the ground.

Richard's agility seemed to be an advantage over Mammoth's mass. He could land two attacks on Mammoth in the same time Mammoth would swing once and miss.

"Guys! Keep it up!" Richard shouted. The change in fighting partners seemed to turn the tide during battle.

Victor was firing off his sonic cannon at Jinx, but she was too agile and Victor couldn't land a solid hit. Once Garfield had punched Gizmo a few more times and was sure he was now unconscious, he ran to Victor's aid.

Garfield jumped in the air and Victor caught Garfield's right foot with his hands cupped. Victor launched Garfield at Jinx with much more velocity than either one of the two could have managed. Before Jinx could dodge as was per usual, Garfield smashed into her, and knocked her to the ground.

She got up and shook her head, as if trying to clear her thoughts. She ran at Victor, but to his surprise, she didn't attack. Instead, she ran past him.

"Shame, you're kinda cute." Jinx said once she was behind Victor.

"What?!" Victor whipped around with his jaw dropped and a look of shock on his face. She ignored him, and ran over to Gizmo.

"Come on, we've got to get out of here." She said. Gizmo had a look like he had something disgusting in his mouth.

"Fine. Mammoth, Jinx says to retreat!" the large man nodded and ran to his two partners.

"You know, this means we have to tell Slade." Said Jinx, putting a hand to her cheek.

"Yeah, yeah." Said Gizmo, before pressing a button on his controller, making the mechanical wings appear once more. He pressed another, and Gizmo was off in the air, flying away.

Jinx just smiled happily and took off running, with Mammoth followed behind as quickly as he could.

"Dudes! We just won! We made the bad guys run away!" Garfield said, elated.

"Yeah, but they were pretty organized, don't you think?" Victor asked.

"Huh? What? No way. They're just a gang or something." Garfield replied.

"I'm not so sure, Garfield." Richard said deep in thought. "Who is Slade?"

--

"I assure you, Mr. Wilson; such failures are not tolerated within The H.I.V.E. The three will be punished. _Severely_ punished." Said the woman, once again standing in the dark room in front of the man sitting in his chair.

"Actually, your agents served my plans quite well. I never expected them to succeed. They were only meant to be messengers." The man said.

"Messengers?"

"Yes. And they did their job. The message has been received." At this, a wall behind the woman lit up a brilliant color. It was a television screen.

On the screen was an older teen, looking about 18 or 19. He was dressed in a pitch black suit with a dark blue bird across the chest. Even though his eyes were masked, you could still see the frustration, anger, and curiosity on his face.

"Who is Slade?" Nightwing asked.

--

"Ah! I can't believe we still can't find it! Where could it be!?" Victor was in panic mode.

He and Garfield still hadn't found the remote control to the television.

"Dude, it has to be around here somewhere!" said Garfield.

Victor was lifting up the couch, searching through all of their cabinets, and looking under the rugs that were randomly placed in the room.

"I… can't… find it…" Victor sounded like he was about to cry.

It was at this that Richard sighed and shook his head.

"Here, Victor. The remote is on top of the T.V. Did you even look there?" said Richard. Victor's head slowly turned to face Richard.

"No… If I was going to go up to the T.V., I would have changed the channel while I was up there…" Victor sounded a bit perturbed.

"Well, its up there." Said Richard nonchalantly.

"Richard! Ah!" Victor couldn't find words. He stopped up to the T.V. and grabbed the remote before going back and sitting on the couch so he quick promptly start channel surfing.

"Uh… guys… you know, shouldn't we be, like, training or something?" Garfield asked. "I mean, those guys were pretty tough, and they're taking orders from some Slade guy, doesn't that mean he's gonna be even tougher?"

"Yes, Garfield, it does. We'll train tomorrow. But right now, let's just wallow in our first official victory as the Teen Titans." Richard said, nodding.

"Yeah!" Garfield smiled.

--

**Go!**

**Part the Second**

Or

**Quoth The Raven**

**--**

"Selina, how much longer do you think it will be? I'm beginning to feel a bit nauseated." Said a young woman. She had shoulder length purple hair, to match her purple eyes. She was very pale, but wore a blue hooded cloak over herself.

"I'm not sure. We should arrive at the J.L.A. headquarters soon, I would think." A blond woman smiled at the girl sitting next to her. "The Third will be there waiting for you to take you back to the Tower."

"Yes, I know. I was just wondering when we would arrive." The girls said. Her voice lacked emotion; her speech patterns were non-existent and only deadpan was there.

"Are you excited?" asked the blond, Selina.

"What is there to be excited about?" the girl turned to look out the window. "I've been fighting bad guys my entire life. I fought them in England, and now I'm fighting them in California. The only difference is location and accent."

"That's a rather dreary way to look at the current situation," said Selina, smiling at the girl.

"I'm a dreary person. I have to be. You know who I am, Selina."

"Yes, I do. And I'm sorry."

"Its not your fault." The girl's monotone voice never quivered.

--

"Titans, as you know, each of us was assigned as a number before we joined the team. I was the First, and you two are the Third and Fourth." Richard called a meeting of the three in the living room.

"Yeah, so?" said Victor.

"Well, aren't you wondering where the Second is at?" asked Richard in a voice that sounded like this information should have been obvious.

"Oh… I guess I never thought about that. Yeah, where is the Second?"

"The Second will be arriving at the J.L.A. headquarters shortly. The J.L.A. wants one of us to go there, and see the Second back to the Tower. Its going to be you, Garfield." Richard nodded his head in Garfield's direction.

"Me?! Why do I have to go?! That place sucks!" Garfield said.

"You're going because you were the last one of us to have been there, you know the corridors better than me or Victor. I haven't been there in a few years, and I don't think Victor's _ever_ been there."

"Dude, I don't know my way around! Even the person I was with got lost, and she _lived _there!" Garfield waved his arms in front of him.

"Yes, but you're still the one that's going. " Richard said sternly.

"But what about the team? What if those H.I.V.E people attack again?" asked Garfield.

"Victor and I can handle it. You can't get out of this, Garfield; you're going. Our future teammate will be awaiting your arrival."

Garfield just sighed. "New York, here I come. Again."

--

Garfield got out of the helicopter and stepped onto concrete. He looked around, and was basked by warmth as the sun breached the atmosphere. He spotted a woman standing next to a door waving in her direction.

"Garfield, nice to see you again." Said Diana.

"Yeah, its been what, a whole three days?"

"You look happier. Something about your… aura." Said Diana, motioning him into the building.

"Well, I'm finally living with some people that like me, I suppose."

"Garfield, what are you talking about… The Doom Patrol liked you just fine."

"Yeah, maybe Rita and Negative Man did. But Mento was always pushing me; making me feel like I wasn't good enough." Garfield said.

"Oh, cut the sob story." Said Diana smiling. "Let's go meet your new teammate."

They walked down the sterile white hallways; Garfield still wondering how anybody could ever navigate their way around this place. Every room looked the same as the last!

They finally reached a room on their left, and knocked. The woman who answered was a thin woman, with blond hair and blue eyes. Garfield looked at her face, and could have sworn something was familiar… Her eyes looked like they had once been fierce, wild and untamed.

"Hello? Oh! You must be from the Titans." Said the woman in the doorway once she caught a glimpse of Garfield.

"Hey! How'd you know?" Garfield grinned. Only a few days on the team and his reputation already proceeded him.

"I only know one other person with green skin, and he's not from Earth." Said the woman, smiling at Garfield when his grin faded. "Oh, cheer up. If you were normal, you wouldn't be a hero."

Garfield gave a slight chuckle. "I'm Garfield, Garfield Logan."

"Selina, Selina Kyle." Said the woman, in mock imitation of him.

Garfield knew he had heard that woman's name before, but he put it off. "So, where's my new teammate?"

"She's in here." Selina stepped aside and let Garfield in. She turned to Diana and stepped out of the room to talk to the other woman.

In the corner of the room, sitting alone in a chair, was a girl. She was covered in a deep blue cloak that wrapped around her body, hiding her figure from prying eyes. She had her hood up and over her head, casting a shadow over her eyes so that only her mouth could be seen. She seemed to be staring at something on the wall, but it was blank.

"Uh... hey! How are you?" Garfield waltzed up the girl and offered his hand. He snapped her out of her trance, and she turned her head to Garfield.

"I'm fine." The girl just looked at his outstretched hand, as if touching it was going to burn her. Garfield took the hint and withdrew it.

"Well, I'm your new teammate. For the Titans. My name's Garfield, what's yours?"

"My name is Rachel, but I go by Raven when in combat. Now, if you'll excuse me, I was trying to meditate." The girl turned her head back to the blank spot on the wall.

"Rachel, huh? That's a nice name. How long have you been kicking butt?"

The girl turned her head back towards Garfield.

"I'm sorry, when I said that I was trying to meditate, I must have accidentally said 'Keep bugging me'." Garfield's shoulders slumped.

At this, Selina and Diana stepped in. "Rachel, its about time to leave, are you ready to go?"

The girl got up out of her seat and floated to the door. When she realized that Garfield was staring at the space on the wall she had been staring at, she sighed.

"Are you coming?" asked Rachel.

"Oh! Yeah, of course." Garfield turned on his heel and marched towards Rachel.

--

"Want to hear a joke?" Garfield asked. They were back on the helicopter pad, walking towards their vehicle.

Rachel turned towards Garfield, about to issue a 'No', but when she looked in his eyes and saw the anticipation, she just shrugged.

"Okay, here goes. Mr. Bear and Mr. Rabbit lived in the same forest, but they didn't like each other very much. One day, while walking through the woods, and they came across a golden frog. They were amazed when the frog talked to them. The golden frog admitted that he didn't often meet anyone, but, when he did, he always gave them six wishes, so he told them that they could have three wishes each.

"Mr. Bear immediately wished that all the other bears in the forest were females. The frog granted his wish. Mr. Rabbit, after thinking for a while, wished for a crash helmet. One appeared immediately, and he placed it on his head. Mr. Bear was amazed at Mr. Rabbit's wish, but carried on with his second wish.

"He wished that all the bears in the neighboring forests were females as well, and the frog granted his wish. Mr. Rabbit then wished for a motorcycle. It appeared before him, and he climbed on board and started revving the engine. Mr. Bear could not believe it and complained that Mr. Rabbit had wasted two wishes that he could have had for himself. Shaking his head, Mr. Bear made his final wish; that all the other bears in the world were females as well, leaving him as the only male bear in the world.

"The frog replied that it had been done, and they both turned to Mr. Rabbit for his last wish. Mr. Rabbit revved the engine, thought for a second, then said, 'I wish that Mr. Bear was gay!' and rode off as fast as he could."

Garfield cracked up laughing, holding his sides as if they would literally split from his comic genius.

"Garfield…" Rachel looked at him.

"Yeah? You thought it was pretty funny didn't you? I know, I know, I'm just _too _talented."

"How long is the ride to the Tower?" Rachel said in a bored voice, and Garfield almost keeled over.

--

"So, how come you go by Raven?" asked Garfield. They were halfway back to the Tower, and the ride had been consumed by silence. Garfield broke it.

Rachel looked at him, and under her hood cocked an eyebrow.

"Why?"

"I'm just wondering. You don't think its funny? I mean, my name is Garfield, and you go by Raven. They're both animals."

"My name is very symbolic; it represents cunning as well as solitude. _Your _name comes from a fat orange cat who eats lasagna all day." Rachel said in a deadpan voice.

"Hey… I wasn't the one who named myself, ya know… My parents, they…" Garfield trailed off.

"Garfield, I'm being facetious. I would never disrespect anyone's parents."

"Oh. Well, you can call me Gar, if you want." Garfield hadn't ever told anybody that, and the shortened version of his own name tasted weird on his tongue.

"Gar, then." Rachel turned and looked out of the window.

"Call I call you Rae? I mean, if we're going to be giving each other nicknames and everything." Garfield wiggled his eyebrows at her.

"I just met you not even two hours ago. You don't know anything about me, and I would really prefer you not."

"So, does that mean when we get to know each other a little better, I could?"

"I doubt it." Said Rachel, still looking out the window.

"Oh… Hey, how come you don't have an accent? You came from England right? Shouldn't you be all 'Spit spot, cheerio good chum,' and all that?" asked Garfield after a few minutes of silence.

"I'm not from England. I was just visiting." Rachel answered.

"Oh, where are you from then? I'm from Africa, you know? Oh, of course you don't know that, I just met you , after all. I don't have an accent either, I kind of phased it--."

"Gar," Rachel said, already using his shortened name. "Do you always talk this much?" Rachel sound slightly annoyed.

"Oh… sorry." Said Garfield. "I'll let you meditate, or whatever you wanted to do back there."

Another few minutes of silence passed.

"How come you have that hood on? Its kind of warm outside, you should pull it down. Ya know, let the breeze flow through your hair!" Garfield said.

"Gar… we are in a helicopter. It wouldn't matter if I--." Before she could finish, though, Garfield had leaned towards her and quickly pulled her hood down, revealing her face.

Garfield stared into the most… intriguing pair of eyes he had ever seen. Their deep shade of purple captivated him, and felt himself drawn to her irises. She had soft pale skin, and shoulder length hair the matching color of her eyes.

Rachel gasped, and quickly pulled her hood back up.

"Garfield, if you _ever_ touch--."

"Whoa. Cool…" Garfield said. The words weren't really intentional; they had honestly just slipped out of his mouth. He was still in some sort of trance, his eyes were focused on the now shadowed part of her face were her eyes would be.

"… what?" Rachel was stunned. Nobody had ever called her that, not really. It was good that her hood was now casting its covering shadow, because she _really _didn't want Garfield to see the slight shade of pink her normally pale cheeks had taken.

"Huh? Oh… Um. I mean…" Garfield darted his eyes to the window, ignoring the question. "We're almost there."

"Oh. That's good." Garfield couldn't detect it, but there was a slight disappointment in the girl's voice.

--

"So, you're the new team member, huh? I'm Richard." The four of them stood in main room, introducing their selves. Garfield and Rachel had just arrived not five minutes ago.

"And I'm Victor." He said, waving and smiling.

"My name is Rachel. Now, if you don't mind my asking, where is my room? I haven't slept in my own bed for a week, and it'd be nice if I could."

"Oh! I'll show you where!" Garfield said, grinning. "We're across the hall from each other."

"Yay." Said Rachel in her monotone, which cause both Victor and Richard to laugh heartily.

"Oh come on, what's so bad about being living next to me?" asked Garfield.

"You're loud." Said Victor.

"And you sleep late." Said Richard.

"And you lose a lot of things"

"And you're room probably smells."

"Whoa! My room does _not _smell. It actually smells quite nice. I've got animals senses, remember? I can't stand smelly stuff, duh." Garfield had an oddly good point.

"Well… you're still messy!" said Victor.

Garfield just sighed. "Come on, Rachel… I'll show you where your room is at." They motioned his arm for her to follow.

--

It was three hours later when the alarm went off. A red light strobed on and off and a low buzzing sound rang throughout the Tower.

Garfield, Victor, and Richard were already in the living room, deciding who would play winner of Mega Monkeys 3.

"Titans, trouble!" shouted Richard. As he brought up a grid of where the crime was taking place, Rachel slid in the room.

"It at the docks. And reports are saying that its those H.I.V.E. guys again."

The four arrived on the scene shortly afterward. The reports were true; it was the H.I.V.E. However, there were more than just Jinx, Gizmo, Mammoth. Alongside them were two new recruits, one was a rather skinny black boy in a jumpsuit and a huge pair of goggles, and the other was a younger male who looked like a rip off of Batman.

"Oh man, not you guys again?" Victor said.

"You got it tin man! And this time we won't lose!" said Gizmo.

"You see, we've got two new recruits. This is SeeMore and Kid Wykkyd, and they can't wait to show their stuff." Said Jinx.

"Titans, go!" shouted Richard.

They squared off, the five H.I.V.E. members and the four Titans. Mammoth and Victor clashed, each in a too familiar power struggle with the other, locked in combat for strength. Garfield changed into a tiger and charged at Gizmo. Before he could get close, though, Gizmo released what appeared to be a metal wand from his suit and upon contact with Garfield, sent a tazer-like shock through it and onto Garfield.

"Bad kitty!" smirked Gizmo.

Richard had been trying to land a hit on SeeMore, but the thin boy was quite quick. He kept turning a knob on the goggles he wore and was repeatedly firing some sort of orbs at Richard.

Rachel, though, hadn't even been trying. Jinx and Kid Wykkyd were trying to double team her, but she just glided backwards and zig-zagged, maneuvering about to avoid their attacks. The other Titans were tying to land a hit; she was just concentrating on not getting hit. Not that it took a lot of effort; she looked bored, as if dodging a two-on-one attack was child's play.

"What's the matter? Too scared to even try? I can understand, I'm pretty intimidating." Jinx rambled; Kid Wyddyd just nodded.

They finally managed to box her into a corner though. "We've got you know, eh? You know, for a Titan, you're pretty lame." Jinx smiled.

"I grow tired of this." Rachel said with a sigh.

"Don't worry, we'll make this quick…" Jinx charged Rachel and was about to connect with her jaw, but in a split-second, a black shield spiked from the ground, defending Jinx's target. Jinx looked puzzled.

Rachel raised her right hand up at arms length in front of her, and a smirk came upon her face for a second. She snapped her fingers, and with a crack, black lightning came from right in front of Rachel's hand and struck Kid Wykkyd in the chest, sending him flying back into a wall. Jinx could just stare.

Rachel turned to Jinx fully now, and calmly held her arm out in the same fashion she had before, he middle finger putting pressure against her thumb, preparing whatever attack she had used against Kid Wykkyd to use against Jinx.

Rachel snapped, but Jinx jumped and barely dodged the horizontal lightning look-a-like. In the air, Jinx twirled and let loose some of her own pink energy waves at Rachel. That black shield appeared again though, and just absorbed the attack. That caught Jinx off guard, and while she was in shock, Rachel took the opportunity to fire off another shot at the pink-haired girl. It hit her dead-on, and Jinx fell to the ground and rolled. She got up and sent more pink magic towards Rachel. But it was to no avail; Rachel's ever-coming and disappearing shield kept springing up and absorbed all of Jinx's attacks.

Rachel gained distance on Jinx, and soon stood within just a few feet of her. Rachel held her arm out, her knuckles threateningly close to Jinx's throat. Jinx heard a snap, and then fell into unconsciousness.

Rachel walked back to where the other Titans were still fighting. She came upon a fallen Victor. He was holding Mammoth's foot back from crushing his chest. Rachel wasn't in a hurry though, she approached the two as if they were just two people on the street..

"Get off of him." Rachel said, her deadpan monotone making Mammoth laugh.

"Oh? And what are you going to do about it, little girl?"

Without answering, Rachel just reeled back, and with a flick of her hand and wrist, encased a wooden crate in a black aura. She levitated it and sent it flying at Mammoth, hitting him in his face and chest.

Mammoth stumbled back from the force of the now splintered and busted object. Victor, now free, got back up.

"Yo! You're gonna…" before he could finish speaking, though, he realized that Rachel was already attacking Mammoth again. She was in the air, landing kicks and spinning back kicks to Mammoth's face. Every time she would touch the ground, she jumped back up immediately; her shoes barely touched the concrete.

Rachel had an obvious advantage. With every kick to Mammoth's jaw, he took a step back. Every time Mammoth took a swing at Rachel, her black aura-shield sprang forth and blocked the attack. The shield was rising and falling so quickly it was as if she wasn't even thinking about it, like the shield was acting subconsciously.

Rachel got out of his face and just stood there, waiting for him to attack. Mammoth grunted, and raised his fist. Mammoth grunted and raised a fist to swing at Rachel. Before he could bring it down, though, Rachel swung her arm in a arc. It was as if her fingers drew a black semi-circle out of thin air. Before she had even finished drawing the arc, though, like a magnet it was drawn to Mammoth's chin. The black arc successfully uppercut the large man before he could react, and he fell onto his back, not moving.

Victor was now just standing, with his mouth agape. He was in awe.

"Whoa, that was awesome! Give me some!" Victor held out his hand.

"I would prefer to finish the fight instead of giving high fives." Rachel said. She took a step back and let Victor clean up what was left of Mammoth. She surveyed the area and found Garfield, who was currently in the form of a bull charging Gizmo.

It wasn't working though, every time Garfield charged, Gizmo would just float a little higher.

Rachel just shook her head and raised her arm. She created another black arc, and sent it in the Gizmo's direction. The black energy sliced through Gizmo's backpack and sent sparks as the backpack started to short out.

Gizmo started to fall to the ground, and Rachel caught Garfield's eye. His smirk told her he could take it from there. Rachel turned to her left and saw Richard still fighting SeeMore.

He was the only one who wasn't having any trouble though. Another few minutes, and he had SeeMore tied down.

The Titans gathered the criminals, and waited until a proper police vehicle arrived to take the criminals into custody.

"Dude! You were amazing!" said Garfield.

"Yeah! You were all zip! And they went like boom! Then you were all ka-pow ka-jow!" Victor was as excited as Garfield about the new edition to their team.

"Great job, Rachel. I had no idea you were that powerful." Richard gave her a soft smile.

"I'm usually not. I just haven't used my powers in a long time. They tend to build up, and when I release them, its… dangerous." Rachel darted her eyes to the ground.

"Dangerous smangerous! You kicked butt!" Said Garfield putting his arm around the girl, holding his other in front of him as if showing her something.

"Gar…"

"Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, I know you don't like to be touched." Garfield withdrew his arm.

"Well, team, I say we call this a day." Said Richard.

"Who wants pizza?" asked Victor.

"Dude, I don't want to go eat pizza, we had pizza like, yesterday!" said Garfield.

"Man, we're teenagers, we're _suppose _to eat pizza everyday." Replied Victor.

"I know! What about non-dairy waffles?" asked Garfield, index finger in the air.

"Yeah… I guess. But you gotta make some of the ones that taste _good. _You know, with actually milk!" said Victor.

"Just do it, Garfield. We should celebrate the victory, and our new teammate!" Richard said before Garfield could respond to Victor.

"Alright… Just this once!" Garfield said. He then turned to Rachel, "Hey, Rachel, want some waffles?"

Rachel just looked at Garfield, and her features seemed to soften. She had an excited look in her eyes, and she raised an eyebrow, "Waffles?"

--

"Diana, its good to see you again." Said Selina as they walked down one of the hallways.

"Yes, it is good to see you too, Selina. I'm glad to see you doing well. Still on the side of good, I see?"

Selina laughed. "Diana, you know as well as I do that Bruce has quite the control over me."

Diana shook her head and sighed. They reached a door and entered the Control Room. The monitor nearest Selina was depicting the Flash racing around somebody in a green cape; well, what little of the Flash the monitor could keep up with, at least.

The two approached a man bent over and watching a smaller monitor.

"Bruce, your… company has arrived." Said Diana, turning back around and walking out. Bruce turned and looked into Selina's eyes.

"How'd the trip go?" he asked.

"Quiet. Really quiet. The Second sure does enjoy her solidarity."

"Yes. She has her reasons for that, I'm sure." Said Bruce.

"She kind of reminded me of you. Well, not _you,_ you. But Batman."

"What'd you think of her? Do you think she'll do?"

"Yes. I do. I believe she'll do just fine." Selina said.

"Good. I hope so." There was a moment of silence that followed.

"So, how's crime fighting going, Bats?"

Bruce gave a slight chuckle, "Not as interesting now that all of the villains are male."

"Oh? Are you saying you want me to return to being Catwoman?" Selina raised her eyebrow.

"No, of course not. I'm glad just how you are."

The two held hands and laced their fingers, watching the monitor of the Titans' fight earlier that day.

--

**Go!**

**Part the Third**

Or

**The Team is Complete**

**--**

"Hm.. I see. Your students have failed again. Why is that not a surprise?" asked the man sitting in his huge chair. The room was dark still, only lit by the sparse orange lights, and the bright spotlight on the speaker in front of him.

"Yes, Mr. Wilson. It seems that even though we added two additional members, the Titans are gaining additional members as well. Their newest recruit, Raven, as she is called, is a formidable opponent. She single-handedly took out most of the H.I.V.E. team."

"Raven…" Slade looked at the picture the woman was holding. "Yes, it seems she will be troublesome. No matter; what I have in store for the Titans cannot and will not be stopped."

"Any orders to the headmaster?" asked the woman.

"Yes. Tell Brother Blood that I will no longer be requiring his services." Said Slade.

The woman looked defeated. "Yes, Mr. Wilson."

--

In the depths of space, a large silver craft passed by a moon. Two humanoid reptiles walked into a room filled with large glass doors. As they passed each glass door, a separate creature resided. It was an alien prison ship.

The angry screams of one of their prisoners echoed throughout the hallway. The guards reached a large steel door. The screams were coming from the room behind it; they were agonizing pleas of pain.

"The door will hold?" said one of the reptiles. Whoever was being held in this room was violently banging against it on the other side.

"It must," said the other.

"The alien _will _be delivered on schedule. Lord Trogar has commanded it." Said the first.

"What if this thing gets loose?"

"Then Zorg help us." It answered.

As if on cue, the prisoner on the other side of the door gave one last band against it. The steel door then slowly fell down onto the floor. In the shadows of the room, the two guards could see a pair of lime green glowing eyes.

"Zagah rue makah! Kekts lingur rar!" the prisoner dashed out of the shadows. She was clad in dark purple and black leggings; with dark red hair that came down to the middle of her back. She had shackles on her wrists that encased her fists all the way up to her elbows. She ran at the first guard and swung her forearms, connecting. Her strength was unbelievable; the guard flew against the wall.

"Zagah rue makah! Kekts lingur rar!" the girl repeated before attacking the second guard. He tried to use his spear-like weapon to attack, but the girl dodged it. She did a spinning jump kick and her heel landed into his jaw, sending him stumbling onto some sort of monitor in the room.

Red lights went off in the hallway, and a loud hum started up.

"Eska vo." Said the prisoner.

In space, an explosion ruptured one of the walls of the ships. Out of the flames, came the girl, flying away from the craft and searching for the closest planet to land on.

--

"That is twice now that you have been defeated!" A tall thin man in a white robe was looming over the three core members of the H.I.V.E. top graduating class.

"I'm sorry Brother, we underestimated their skills." Said Jinx. She had a worried and fearful tone in her voice.

"Yeah, those pit-sniffers had a new member! She was magic, just like Jinx!" said Gizmo.

"It does _not _matter what kind of powers she possessed. She tore your team apart like wet toilet paper. This will not happen again." Said the thin man.

"Brother, we just weren't prepared. Like Jinx said, we underestimated them. Let us have another go!" Mammoth pounded a fist against his chest.

"You will _not _have another go! Not until you clean up the mess that is all of your weak lives. You will become stronger, and you will become faster."

"But, Brother, I thought you said that that Slade guy didn't want our help after all?" Jinx asked.

"That does not matter! It doesn't matter if this Slade person does not want to employ you three anymore!" The thin man walked up and got within half a foot of Jinx. "The only thing that matters is that we save face, and keep the good name of the H.I.V.E. Academy."

"Yes, Brother." Jinx looked terrified. She swallowed hard, and tried to focus her eyes on the high corner of the room.

"Good. Do not let this failure repeat itself, do you hear me? Jinx, you are the leader, it will fall on your shoulders the most." The man backed own, started to walk away. "You must beat the Titans, if only for your _own _good."

"Yes, Brother." And with that, Brother Blood exited the room.

"Jeez Jinx! This is all your fault!" Gizmo turned and pointed his finger and the pale girl.

"Mine! How do you figure that? At least my powers can't go on the fritz whenever I get hit!" Jinx referred to his backpack being sliced.

"Gizmo, calm down…" Mammoth said, trying to calm his teammates. "Its all of our faults."

"Yeah, whatever. Just keep your eyes on _your _target, Jinx!" Gizmo walked out of the room.

"Don't worry about him, Jinx." Mammoth said, putting a comforting hand on Jinx's shoulder. "We'll get the Titans next time, right?"

"Yeah… right." Jinx's voice seemed distant.

--

It was well into the night, and darkness engulfed the city. The only sound audible were a man's feet as they pattered up the sidewalk quickly, as if he were running from something. He turned and ran into an alley, and police sirens followed. The police car drove past the alley, however, not seeing the man duck into the alley in the dark.

The man stopped running and bent over, placing his hands on his knees to try to catch his breath. He had job robbed a convenience store, and was on the move.

"I got away. I can't believe I really got away." The man looked at the small brown bag in his left hand, and had a wonderful feeling in his inner being. "Wow, I wonder how much I got?"

Just as he was opening the bag, a small object whistled by at high velocity and hit the man's hands which made him drop the bag. The man looked at the object; it was silver, and shaped a little like a lower case 'T'. The two wings on it looked like just that, wings. In fact, it looked more like bird than a lower case 'T'.

The man's eyes dilated. Urban legend has it that Batman uses weapons similar to that. And he was in Jump City; home to the newest superhero team. The color drained from his face.

"I think you need to put that back." A voice from one of the rooftops said. It was an intimated, commanding voice.

The man knew what he was in for, and put up no fight. He raised both hands in defeat, and was amazed when the figure from on top the building jumped and with the agility of the cat, quickly shimmied down to the ground.

The man glimpsed the man's costume, surprised that he had not seen the Boy Wonder's red colors.

"Hey… I thought you worked for--."

"Not anymore." Richard interrupted him. The man just nodded.

With a humming sound, something high in the air caught Richard's attention as he was tying the man up to leave for the authorities. Richard looked skywards, and saw a green streak racing across the sky.

_Now, what in the world…_ Richard thought before taking off in the green streak's direction.

Whatever it was, it landed five blocks down. It created a small crater in the ground, and steam and smoke began to rise from the streets where the impact had occurred. Civilians that were on the streets slowly crowded around, and a rabble of whispered began to stir.

The girl emerged from the crater. She still wore shackles that encased her entire forearm.

"Slot neyhor vortoth! Urt good shektar rue!" The girl gave a scream, and pounded her fists to the ground, making a dent in the concrete.

She slammed and slammed her fists, but the shackles wouldn't break. She ran to a building, and began smashing her arms onto the bricks. When that didn't work, she ran to a car and began slamming her fists onto that. All that did, though, was leave huge dents in the side door.

Before she could destroy anything else, a bird-a-rang hit her in her temple. She wore a silver M on her face, the legs of the M framing her cheeks. It looked like some sort of crown, and if it wasn't for this, the blow to her head would have been worse.

This only seemed to anger the girl. She turned and bared her teeth, searching for the thrower.

Richard stood across the street. "Who are you?"

The girl didn't answer. She just leaped at him, and with an angry scream swung her fists at the boy. He dodged, and her blow left a dent in the street.

He stood in the middle of the street, and looked at the girl. She looked like she was in pain. She looked back to the boy, and walked over to a car. With her right foot, she flipped the car in the air, and with her left did a spinning back kick and sent it in Richard's direction.

Richard hit the floor, and the car barely grazed him. Richard turned to see the car land and skid to a stop. "Wow. Stronger than she looks."

When Richard turned back to face the girl, he receive and hard kick in the jaw, which sent him on his back. He stood up and pulled out his bow. He extended the metallic cylinder and landed a hit on the girl, which made her stumble backwards.

"Zoeta." Said the girl. She gave Richard a smirk before swinging at him again.

Richard easily dodged. She swung again and Richard continued to jump away, but was soon backed up against a building.

The girl walked up slowly to him, as if a lioness was stalking its prey. Richard braced for an attack, raising he arms in defense. To his surprise, though, the girl didn't attack. Her eyes didn't have that slight glow to them anymore. She slipped under Richard's arms and now stood in Richard's personal space. She didn't look like she was going to attack, though. In fact, she had her arms slack.

Richard raised an eyebrow, confused. Before he could say anything, though, the girl pressed her lips to his. Richard's arms dropped to his sides, and his eyes closed halfway.

The girl pulled away and looked Richard in his face. She then held him against the wall.

"If you wish not to perish, you will not follow me." With that, the girl leapt in the air, and flew away.

Richard tried to wrap his mind around what had just happened. He shook it off though, and tried to tail the girl.

He followed her via rooftop to a candy shop that had been closed for the night. She had broken in, and was now consuming what food she could get.

Richard walked up behind her, trying to not make any noise. He failed though when he accidentally kicked a jelly bean the girl had spilt on the floor. The small hard candy bounced on the linoleum, and alerted the girl of Richard's presence.

"Those taste better without the wrapper." Said Richard.

"I do not know why it is that you have followed me. But if you are here to take me back into custody, you are mistaken." Said the girl.

"Custody? You're a criminal?" Richard raised an eyebrow. He didn't know why he didn't put two and two together. She was wearing _shackles_ for God's sake. The girl's shoulders slouched.

"No. I am not a criminal, simply a prisoner. I was on my way to be sold into slave trade when I escaped." The girl said. She didn't know why, but she felt as if she could trust this boy.

"Slave… trade?" asked Richard. "You're… a slave?"

"No. I was going to be." Replied the girl. She turned back around, and searched for more food.

"When was the last time you ate anything?" Richard asked her, worried.

"It has been two cloknars since I have consumed anything," the girl said. "I suppose that would be the equivalent to one and a half weeks on this planet. Earth, as you call it? I only know it as Blue978."

"You haven't eaten in a week and half? Come here." Richard beckoned her towards him.

She came reluctantly. He took here arms and pulled out a small tool that looked like a hooked screwdriver. He inserted it here and there in her shackles, and after a minute or two, the shackles fell to the ground.

The girl rubbed her wrists, as if they had been confined for years.

"Thank you. What is the reason for this action?" the girl asked him.

"Uh… well, I was just being nice." Replied Richard.

"Nice? I'm not sure of that word. The closest thing we have to that on my home planet is my k'norfka; the one who watched over my childhood. Beings are not nice just for the sake of it."

"What kind of planet did you come from if there aren't any nice people?" Richard took the comment about her being an alien with ease. After all, his mentor's best friend is Kryptonian.

"My planet is a warrior planet. Since birth, bumgorfs are taught to fight and be strong. We do not really have… niceness."

"Well, you're on Earth now. You're free… uh, what is your name?" asked Richard, suddenly realizing he had been talking to the red-head for a while without even knowing who she was.

"In my native tongue, I am called Koriand'r. However, in your language, I suppose it would be Star Fire." The girl gave a small smile.

"And my name is Richard." The boy offered his hand to shake hers, but after a few seconds he withdrew it, realizing she probably didn't know what to do.

"Richard…" The girl liked the way the word sounded. "I bring you… apology. I should not have initiated the lip contact with you."

"Uh…yeah… Why did you do that?" Richard felt his cheeks get warm.

"I did not know your language; however, my race has the ability to assimilate any language through physical contact." The girl said.

"And you had to kiss me to do that?" Richard asked. He was not at all displeased, though.

"Language is spoken through the lips, is it not?" Richard didn't notice her side-stepping the question. Truthfully, it didn't need to be through lip contact. Koriand'r just thought it would be more… enjoyable…. if she kissed him though; he was the first person to be _nice _to her in such a long time.

"Um… do you have a place to stay?" Richard moved on to the next question, trying to hide the slight pink tinge on his cheeks. "Because me and my teammates live a pretty huge place; there is plenty of room if you wanted to stay for a while."

"I… would like that." The girl said.

--

"This is Victor, that's Garfield, and this is Rachel." Richard introduced his teammates to the girl, pointing to each one as he said their names.

"Guys, this is Star Fire." The red-head girl smiled at the three people standing in front of her.

"Is she going to be part of the team?" asked Rachel, eyeing the girl up and down.

"Actually, yeah. I told her all about what we do, and she seemed pretty excited." Richard answered.

"Oh yes! I would like very much so to stop the crime!" the girl said happily.

"Hmm… well, she's going to need a street name, don't ya think?" Victor said.

"Oh, yes. Richard has told be about the 'hero-names'… I believe it would be appropriate if you all would call me Koriand'r, as it is my name in my home language, and then Starfire for when we fight the evil."

"Koriand'r, huh? That's kind of a mouthful, can't we just call you Kori?" asked Garfield.

"Kori…" The girl said her name, listening to the shortened version and smiled. "Yes! That would be most adequate!"

Richard turned towards her and smiled.

"Kori, welcome to the Titans."

--

"Well, that sure is an odd twist, isn't it? The Titans found their own Fifth." The No. 4 screen lit up green.

"Yes, it saves us much trouble. In addition, it seems that the Fifth has even more power than the Second." The No. 3 screen lit up yellow.

"I would not be so sure of that, Number Three. Just because one uses their full strength at all times does not mean that they are the strongest." No. 1 said; the screen lighting up red.

"Yes. In any case, this… accident… has been most fortunate. Now that the Titans have all five members, we can begin to fully initiate our plans." The person sitting at the No. 2 monitor said.

"Yes. I am sure that Deathstroke will have heard of the gathering of heroes by now, and will be eager to challenge them." Said No. 3.

"The faster the Titans are tested, the faster we can get on with The Leap." Said No. 4.

"Yes, we know that. We just have to make sure that they do not." And with that, the person sitting at the No. 2 monitor smirked.

--

**AN: **Not all chapters will be this long. I did this for two reason in particular: the story needed a good push, and I wanted Raven and Starfire to be in this. And the second was for dedication reasons (read the note at the top).

--


End file.
